There is increasing doubt regarding the decision to grant a presidential pardon to Mahendralal Patel, also recognized as Mahendra Motibhai Patel, despite him having not served his sentence.
Mr. Patel faced charges for Abuse of Office in 2006 and was convicted in absentia on November 20, 2014, resulting in a 12-month prison sentence. However, he did not serve any time as the court permitted him to leave the country for medical treatment, and he did not return afterward.
Attempts to reach Attorney-General Graham Leung, who also chairs the Mercy Commission, for clarification on Patel’s conditional pardon have been unsuccessful since Sunday. A follow-up inquiry made yesterday also yielded no response before this edition was published.
Fiji Corrections Service (FCS) Commissioner Jalesi Nakarawa confirmed that Mr. Patel’s name was not included in the list submitted to the Mercy Commission. The release list from FCS, published last Thursday afternoon, did not mention Mr. Patel. However, shortly after, the Fiji Government’s Facebook page released the names of those pardoned, which included Mr. Patel.
“The FCS facilitates applications from convicted prisoners, processes them, and submits them to the Mercy Commission,” Commissioner Nakarawa explained. “In Patel’s case, we were unaware because his name wasn’t on our list; he wasn’t in our custody. I have no clarity on how his petition reached the Mercy Commission, as I only manage cases of prisoners under our care.”
A statement from the Mercy Commission indicated that Mr. Patel had initially submitted a petition on April 4, 2023, which was dismissed. On June 13, the Commission received a request for reconsideration from his lawyers. The Commission took into account Mr. Patel’s age, the duration of his absence from Fiji, and his significant contributions to the nation when deliberating on the second petition.
Consequently, the Commission recommended a conditional pardon for Mr. Patel, contingent upon his not reoffending. The President acted on this recommendation from the Mercy Commission under Section 119(5) of the Constitution on September 18, 2024. The Commission confirmed that its decisions were made in line with constitutional protocols.