81 People Charged, 88 Separate Counts In May
The following data relates to the number of formal indictments (Information) filed in the High Courts of Fiji by the Director of Public Prosecutions throughout the month. This data is confined to incidents of serious crimes other than sexual violence offences which are recorded and published separately. This data also includes offences committed by police officers.
There were 81 people charged with a total of 88 counts of separate incidents in May. The offences were murder (three), attempted murder (one), manslaughter (one), aggravated robbery (13), robbery with violence (one), aggravated burglary (25), theft (25), receiving stolen properties (three), assault (two), assault with intent to cause bodily harm (five), dangerous driving causing grievous bodily harm (one), driving with excess alcohol (one), breach of DVRO (one), conspiracy (one), damaging property (one), and possession of illicit drugs (one).
Of these 81 people charged, two were Police officers. One Police officer was charged with one count of conspiracy and one count of receiving stolen properties while another was charged with assault. There were 10 juveniles who were also charged with separate offences.
There were 50 victims of these serious offences. Of these 50 victims, there were five incidents involving a domestic setting and of these five, three were victims of murder. One of the murder victims was a newly born baby while the other two murder incidents involved a husband and wife.
There was one incident of manslaughter where the victim died from a king hit at a nightclub in the Western Division.
For the aggravated robbery offences, the items stolen ranged from $105 cash to $30,000 worth of property and for the aggravated burglary and theft offences, the items stolen ranged from $166 worth of alcohol to $24,965 worth of property. One man was charged with one count of dangerous driving causing grievous bodily harm after a Oneyear-6-month old boy sustained serious injuries.
Two cases were withdrawn after discontinuances (Nolle Prosequi) were filed. One case of assault causing bodily harm and breach of DVRO was withdrawn due to a false complaint while another case of driving with excess alcohol was withdrawn pending the accused’s return from overseas.
Refer to the table entitled ODPP Serious Crime (Non-Sexual Violence Offences) Statistics May 2017 for a break-down of these statistics.
Source: Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions