The Suva High Court has allowed two journalists to give evidence in the joint stay application by former deputy prime ministers Manoa Kamikamica and Professor Biman Prasad after Acting Fiji Independent Commission Against Corruption (FICAC) Commissioner Lavi Rokoika objected to their testimony.
The hearing, before Justice Siainiu Fa’alogo Bull, saw Rokoika argue that the proposed evidence from MaiTV reporter Lavenia Lativerata and Fiji Times journalist Jake Wise was irrelevant to the applicants’ claim that a fair trial cannot be held or that there had been egregious conduct amounting to an abuse of process. Rokoika told the court the move looked designed to embarrass her and asked that leave to call the journalists be refused.
King’s Counsel Martin Daubney, who is representing the applicants, countered that the witnesses were plainly relevant and that their testimony had not come as a surprise to the respondents. Daubney told Justice Bull Lativerata conducted an audio interview with Rokoika about her acting appointment to lead FICAC, while Wise interviewed Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka about the same appointment. He said those interviews went directly to a central issue in the stay application: the lawfulness of Rokoika’s appointment.
Daubney argued the journalists’ evidence had been made relevant by Rokoika’s own legal submissions. In court filings, Rokoika relied on the de facto officer doctrine — which, in general terms, can preserve the validity of acts performed by someone occupying office under colour of authority — asserting she did not know her appointment was unlawful and that any irregularity should not invalidate her past actions. Daubney told the court he would challenge that claim, saying the doctrine could not be invoked if Rokoika was in fact aware of the appointment’s alleged unlawfulness.
After hearing the arguments, Justice Bull ruled that the journalists’ evidence was relevant and permitted them to be called. The ruling clears the way for Lativerata and Wise to be questioned in the stay hearing about the content and context of their interviews with Rokoika and Prime Minister Rabuka, respectively.
The stay application by Kamikamica and Professor Biman Prasad remains before Justice Bull. Allowing media testimony marks the latest development in a procedural phase of the case that has focused on whether actions connected to Rokoika’s acting appointment affect the fairness and lawfulness of proceedings. The journalists’ testimony is expected to bear on the respondents’ contention that the appointment was irregular and whether any such irregularity was known to Rokoika at the time she assumed duties.
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