April 30, new trial date for Fiji Times

The High Court in Suva yesterday set a new trial date for The Fiji Times sedition case. It will be held from April 30, 2018 to May 4, 2018. Accused persons Josaia Waqabaca, Anare Ravula and Fred Wesley appeared before Justice Thushara Rajasinghe, while private lawyer Wylie Clarke made an appearance on behalf of the newspaper company. Fourth accused Hank Arts was not present in court. He was represented by lawyer Nicholas Barnes, of the company's lawyers, Munro Leys.

Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions Lee Burney told Justice Rajasinghe that the State was ready to go to trial. He said they intended to make further submissions on an issue involving Ravula, which arose out of the court's ruling on the elements of the offence he is charged with. He said this was for further clarification to ensure parties were on the same page.

On the issue of variation in translation Mr Burney was of the view that parties would never get to a definitive understanding of a singular meaning of the words included in the alleged seditious statement. He said this was because of the nature of the iTaukei language adding that it was a slight variation, which was only the gist of the wordings.

Mr Burney mentioned that they would be relying on the article rather than the statement in isolation adding that it would be artificial to only rely on a few lines. Ravula’s lawyer Devanesh Sharma said the interpretation as it stood could not be put to the assessors and that the charge would not stand on the interpretation. Mr Clarke and Mr Barnes informed the court that they had not sighted the statement and the translated version.

Bail was extended for all accused persons.