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PORT VILA - Conman Peter Foster has been busy trying to cut a deal with authorities in Vanuatu to allow him to leave the country - and give evidence against other Australians there.
State Prosecutor Alfred Bice today told AAP Foster had told authorities he would write a tell-all statement against the people who allegedly brought him to the island - but only after his deportation orders were signed and he was about to board a plane to Australia.
"He said only if the deportation orders were signed he would make a statement," Mr Bice said. It is unclear whether the deal with Foster was still on offer.
Three Australians are accused of spiriting Foster into Vanuatu aboard a salvage vessel.
Two of the men aboard the Retriever I - Kell Walker and Robert Lofting - have been charged with possessing illegal weapons, as well as charges relating to Foster's unlawful entry.
The third man, Andrew Tarter, has been charged with aiding and abetting Foster.
The trio deny Foster was on the vessel.
Mr Bice also said prosecutors had agreed to drop a charge against the convicted conman, who is wanted in Fiji and the Federated States of Micronesia, for crimes he allegedly committed overseas.
Foster is still facing charges of being a prohibited immigrant, which carries a penalty of up to six months in prison and a 100,000 vatu ($1062) fine, and a charge of not possessing a current valid passport, which has a penalty of up to five years' jail.
He is to appear today in Port Vila's Magistrates' Court, where Mr Bice said Foster would give a short statement about the charges against him at a preliminary inquiry hearing - a proceeding similar to a committal hearing in Australian courts.
Foster was to have been deported to Australia last Friday, as part of the deal, but he refused to write the statement after Vanuatu's Minister for Internal Affairs George Wells, failed to sign the deportation order while he was visiting islands and unavailable.
The minister returned to Suva on the weekend but still did not sign the paper.
Internal Affairs secretary Joe Carlo said the minister had again left Vanuatu's capital Port Vila.
Mr Carlo yesterday said any deal to deport Foster was in doubt.
- AAP
