INMATE FILES CONSTITUTIONAL REDRESS MATTER

A prisoner serving a 20-year jail term for the murder of a Fiji National University student Krishneel Singh in 2010 has filed a case of constitutional redress case in the High Court.

Salesi Balekivuya appeared before Suva High Court Judge Justice Daniel Goundar. He alleges that his constitutional rights were breached at the time of his arrest in 2010.

His application is against the Commissioner of Police, Attorney-General and Fiji Corrections Service Commissioner. Balekivuya sought a retrial and immediate release by the High Court because he had served nine years since the age of 19. Geraldine Naigulevu and Suliana Taukei of the Attorney-General’s Chambers told the court that they would file a strike out application in the matter. Justice Goundar said the case of constitutional redress was a case of an alleged abuse of process and adjourned the matter for mention to March 1, 2019.

Background:

On May 4, 2010, at Shalimar Street in Samabula, Balekivuya who was drunk and had smoked marijuana got into a fight with Singh. Balekivuya struck Singh on the head with a spade multiple times and kicked his head, resulting in serious injuries to the skull and brain.

Singh died later at the Colonial War Memorial Hospital the same afternoon. On August 12, 2011, Balekivuya was sentenced to mandatory imprisonment for life for Mr Singhs’s murder. Balekivuya was handed a mandatory life imprisonment with a non-parole period of 20 years for Mr Singh’s murder, nine months imprisonment for damaging property and nine years in jail for attempted robbery.

The sentences are being served concurrently.