Court quashes sentence

A LABASA man who was sentenced to nine months imprisonment for breaching a domestic violence restraining order (DVRO), is a free man now after the High Court in Labasa quashed the initial sentence.

High Court judge Justice Aruna Aluthge ruled in favour of Nazim Hussein who appealed the initial sentence in the Magistrate Court.

Mr Hussein was sentenced in April this year and filed a petition to appeal last month.

“The learned magistrate erred in law and in fact in convicting the petitioner when in fact there was no supporting evidence that he violated the said restraining order,” Justice Aluthge said.

“That the verdict and findings of the learned magistrate is unreasonable and cannot be supported having regard to the evidence as a whole.

“That the learned magistrate erred in law and in fact in accepting the evidence of the complainant, particularly that there was no corroborating evidence of the complainant by any other independent witness.”

Justice Aluthge said there was no concrete evidence that Mr Hussein breached the DVRO.

“The conviction recorded by the learned magistrate is quashed and the sentence is set aside.

“No retrial is ordered and the appellant is acquitted.”