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Australian conman Peter Foster has done a deal with Fiji's new military regime, allowing him to leave Suva in return for exposing corruption in the ousted Government, says a senior legal source.
The source, who did not want to be named, said yesterday the weekend disappearance of Foster from a hotel where he was under house arrest was done with the permission of the magistrate presiding over his case.
Foster, infamous for his links with Cherie Blair, wife of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, missed a court appearance on Monday after a group of men in civilian clothing checked him out of the upmarket JJ's on the Park Hotel in Suva on Saturday.
The military and police deny they know why he disappeared.
There have been unconfirmed reports that Foster had moved to a villa he rents at the Denarau Island resort near Nadi.
He is facing charges of using forged documents to obtain a work permit and business licence in Fiji and is also under investigation for allegedly trying to discredit a rival Fiji resort project by portraying it as a haven for paedophiles.
State prosecutors demanded to know on Monday who had allowed Foster to be removed from his hotel.
Foster had applied to the court to move to his Nadi villa, complaining that he could not afford the cost of staying in the hotel, as well as the rent on the luxury villa.
The senior legal official said magistrate John Semisi was approached last Saturday by the military authorities requesting a change in Foster's bail conditions.
The judge was told Foster had agreed to assist the military in exposing corrupt officials in the Government of Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase, ousted in the November 5 coup.
Foster has been described as "Australia's greatest conman", and achieved a new level of notoriety in Britain in 2002, when he bought two flats on behalf of Cherie Blair.
- AFP
