A former civil servant who is currently incarcerated has had his non-parole period reduced from 22 years to 20 years by the Supreme Court. Viliame Katia, who previously served as the acting deputy official receiver, was initially sentenced to 14 years in prison in 2017 after being found guilty of corrupt practices that resulted in a loss of $4.1 million to the bankruptcy and liquidation accounts of the Office of the Receiver.
Katia faced 11 counts of corruption-related offenses, three counts of abuse of office, four counts of forgery, one count of embezzlement, one count of providing false information to a public servant, one count of unauthorized modification of data, and a count of obtaining financial advantage.
After a successful appeal by the Fiji Independent Commission Against Corruption in 2018, his sentence was increased to 23 years with a non-parole period of 22 years by acting Chief Justice Salesi Temo. Katia subsequently appealed this sentence to the Supreme Court, which convened for a hearing on August 16.
In their ruling, Justices Anthony Gates, Dame Lowell Patricia Goddard, and Alipate Qetaki noted that although the embezzled funds have not been returned, Katia is still relatively young and there is hope for his eventual redemption as a law-abiding citizen after serving his time.