A man sentenced to eight years and 11 months for rape by the High Court in Lautoka in 2016 has had his conviction overturned. Justice Alipate Qetaki, sitting in the Supreme Court, acquitted Eroni Cevamaca of all charges in a ruling delivered on the 29th of last month.
Previously, the Court of Appeal had dismissed Mr. Cevamaca’s appeal and upheld his conviction on November 9, 2022. The Supreme Court’s decision was based on whether the Court of Appeal made a legal error by not independently evaluating the evidence before confirming a verdict that was deemed unsafe, unsatisfactory, and lacking supporting evidence, leading to a significant injustice for Mr. Cevamaca.
Justice Qetaki noted that while analyzing the Court of Appeal’s decision, it seemed they had assessed the evidence from the trial and the ruling of the trial judge but did not conduct an independent evaluation of the findings. He emphasized that the Court of Appeal’s role was to determine if the trial judge accurately assessed the evidence’s weight and witness credibility and whether the reasons for disagreement with the assessments could withstand scrutiny based on all the evidence presented. Justice Qetaki concluded that the Court of Appeal failed in this regard.