With a firm denial and sharper words, former attorney-general Graham Leung has torched the Commission of Inquiry’s (COI) findings into the appointment of Barbara Malimali as FICAC commissioner, branding accusations of collusion “absurd”.
“They never talked to me about Malimali, and I never talked to them about Malimali,” he said, rejecting any suggestion of a conspiracy involving the Solicitor-General, Justice Minister, or Deputy Prime Minister.
Mr Leung said the law required only consultation with the Attorney-General — “which they did” — and that his signature on the Judicial Services Commission form could hardly be called a “ringing endorsement”.
“I just signed off. End of story.”
Mr Leung is the first of those “implicated” in the COI report to tell his side of the story.
Hours after the press conference, Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka made public a redacted version of the commission’s report.
There is no evidence that I conspired with Minister Kamikamica either, or Mr Greene or Siromi Turaga.
They never talked to me about Malimali, and I never talked to them about Malimali, because it was not their job anyway.”
“How you can extrapolate from that, that there’s a conspiracy and abuse of office… I think it’s probably easier to push a camel through the eye of a needle,” he said.
