There is increasing doubt regarding the Presidential pardon granted to Mahendralal Patel, also known as Mahendra Motibhai Patel, despite his not having served his sentence. Patel was charged with Abuse of Office in 2006 and was convicted in absentia on November 20, 2014, receiving a 12-month imprisonment sentence.
Patel did not serve his sentence as he was granted permission by the court to travel abroad for medical treatment and failed to return. Efforts to reach Attorney-General Graham Leung, who chairs the Mercy Commission, for a statement regarding the conditional pardon have been unsuccessful since Sunday. A follow-up made yesterday also yielded no response by the time of this report.
Jalesi Nakarawa, Commissioner of the Fiji Corrections Service (FCS), confirmed that Mr. Patel’s name was absent from the FCS list submitted to the Mercy Commission. The release list issued last Thursday afternoon did not feature Patel’s name; however, shortly after, the Fiji Government’s Facebook page announced that he had been pardoned.
Nakarawa explained that the FCS handles petitions from prisoners in custody, stating, “For Patel, we didn’t know anything about it. His name was not on our list because he was not in our custody.” He expressed uncertainty about how Patel’s petition reached the Mercy Commission.
A statement from the Mercy Commission indicated that Patel submitted a petition on April 4, 2023, which was dismissed. On June 13, the Commission received a request for reconsideration from Patel’s legal team. The Commission later deliberated and considered factors such as Patel’s age, the duration of his absence from Fiji, and his significant contributions to the country.
Ultimately, the Commission recommended a conditional pardon for Patel, contingent on him refraining from future offenses. The President acted on the Mercy Commission’s recommendations on September 18, 2024, stating that all decisions adhere to the Constitution.