Ba lawyer Mohammed Sahu Khan says he was a victim of a politically motivated bullying campaign between 2013 and 2023.
While sharing his public testimony before a Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearing in Lautoka yesterday, an emotional Mr Sahu Khan recalled a heated encounter with a former government minister in 2012 when he threatened to close down his legal practice.
“In 2011, I had a case that was maintenance case for a pilot and he was paying maintenance at an extraordinary amount and he wanted me to lower it so I agreed,” said Mr Sahu Khan.
“He told me that the lady who was involved with him had a sister who worked in the A-G’s Chambers and it did not really register with me at the time.
“I ran into the minister in 2012 in Denarau and he asked me why are you delaying this case?
“I told him ‘the respondent was delaying the case and I know why you are asking me about this case because her sister works in the A-G’s Chambers’.
“It has nothing to do with you.
“It is a live case. It is before the court and I have the right mind to report you for interfering with this case because it has nothing to do with you.
“He said to me ‘I can close you down tomorrow’.”
Mr Sahu Khan said before the 2006 coup, he had a strong friendship with Mr Sayed-Khaiyum that has since soured.
“The (former) attorney-general and I were good friends.
“When I got married, I had asked him to be my best man but he could not make it. When the coup happened in 2006 and I happened to be in Prague and about a week later I heard Aiyaz was being involved in this coup and he was being named the attorney-general.
“When I came back, I told myself that I could not have anything to do with him because you should not involve yourself with something that is illegal. Constitutionally it was wrong to involve yourself with a coup maker.
“We are lawyers and we have to obey the law.
“So, things sort of became unpleasant between us. I got into the habit of criticising the government and the attorney-general at conferences because there was no other forum where you could speak out.”
