A TRAINING conducted by the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) twice a year as part of the ODPP’s continuing commitment to raise the standards of criminal trial advocacy in Fiji was held last week.
Eleven prosecutors from ODPP completed the intensive three-day Trial Advocacy Training Course, which was administered by two International Advocacy Training Council (IATC) accredited advocacy teachers, Giles Surman from Hong Kong and Ravi Nekoo from Malaysia.
Mr Surman is a member of the Hong Kong Bar Council and has been involved in advocacy training for over 10 years and Mr Nekoo is the treasurer of the Malaysian Bar and the Chairperson of the Malaysian National Legal Aid Committee.
They were assisted by two ODPP Principal Legal Officers Sekonaia Vodokisolomone and Yogesh Prasad.
The training is based on the Hampel Method of advocacy training which is used by the Bar Council of England and Wales, the Hong Kong Bar Association, the Malaysian Bar Council, the Bar Council of Ireland, the Australian Bar Association, the New Zealand Bar Association and the General Council of the Bar of South Africa to train their barristers.
