George Speight,expected to be cleared of treason charges
The Fijian coup leader George Speight and 16 of his allies are due back in court on treason charges tomorrow. However, legal insiders there are predicting that Speight will be freed by the end of the day. They expect that the Chief Magistrate, Sailesi Temo, will rule that the treason charges were an abuse of the legal process. In such a case, Speight would face only minor charges for which he could be freed on bail. Speight was arrested on July 27. He was the leader of the May 19 coup to oust ethnic Indian Prime Minister, Mahendra Chaudhry.
The Prime Minister and his government were held hostage for 56 days. The Chief Justice will also hold a hearing tomorrow on whether Police Commissioner Isikia Savua was involved in the coup. The suspended Police Commissioner is angry that the hearing will be in private. The police have set up an inquiry to investigate if the coup was linked to an American timber company trying to get access to rich mahogany timber plantations in Fiji.
