Iliesa Tora
RNZ Pacific senior sports journalist
The Fiji High
Court has ruled that the Commission of Inquiry report into
the appointment of Barbara Malimali as FICAC Commissioner,
in its entirety is null and void.
Justice Dane
Tuiqereqere also found that the COI report was unlawful, and
that its adverse findings are irrational and have been
quashed.
It’s also been found that President Ratu
Naiqama Lalabalavu and Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka failed
to provide the applicants with natural
justice.
Malimali challenged the report with former
Attorney General Graham Leung, and lawyers Wylie Clarke and
Laurel Vaurasi.
Local media said the judge has
determined that the President, the Prime Minister and the
Commission of Inquiry, breached principles of natural
justice for not giving the applicants the opportunity to
respond to the adverse findings against them.
Fiji
Village News said Justice Tuiqereqere ruled that the work of
the Commission of Inquiry after 1st February 2025, including
the report is ultra vires or unlawful.
He found that
the extension of the Commission of Inquiry beyond 31st
January 2025 was ineffective.
As a result, the actions
of the Commissioner after that date, including the
completion of his report dated 1st May 2025, were unlawful,
Fiji Village News stated.
Justice Tuiqereqere has also
found that adverse findings and recommendations against the
applicants including Malimali, former Attorney General
Graham Leung and lawyers Wylie Clarke and Laurel Vaurasi
were unlawful, including those relating to a meeting at the
FICAC office on 5th September 2024.
‘Praise God for
the win’
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The applicants had further challenged the
decision by the President, on the advice of the Prime
Minister, to release the Commission of Inquiry report
publicly.
Malimali and her lawyer Tanya Waqanika are
on the island of Kadavu and responded to the ruling in a
Facebook post, saying justice has been served.
“Praise
God for the win,” Waqanika said in her post.
“It has
been a hard battle fighting to clear Barbara Malimali’s name
from the COI taxpayer funded $4m (and counting) crocodile
hunting failed expedition.
“Barbara Malimali and me
are here in my village and we just received the news that we
WON our HBJ No 9/26 Judicial Review case against the Fiji
Government (well, all the Respondents names are Govt
representatives).
The judge also said the COI Chair,
David Ashton-Lewis, should have provided a draft of the
adverse findings against the applicants to them and an
opportunity to respond before compiling the
report.
The Commission of Inquiry was the brainchild
of Rabuka.
In June, the High Court rejected the Prime
Minister’s attempt to stall its ruling that the country’s
former anti-corruption chief was illegally sacked.
In
February, Justice Dane Tuiqereqere found that the President
– on the advice of the prime minister – “unlawfully”
dismissed Barbara Malimali, the head of
FICAC
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