Ex-Fiji PM charged with money laundering

Mahendra Pal Chaudhry. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Former Fiji prime minister Mahendra Pal Chaudhry has appeared in court in Suva, charged with a dozen crimes relating to money laundering and tax evasion, Fiji police say.

Chaudhry, who was held hostage for 56 days before being deposed as Fiji's leader in a nationalist coup in 2000, was arrested by Fiji police on Thursday morning.

Fiji police spokeswoman Ema Mua told AAP that Chaudhry appeared in Suva Magistrate's Court on Friday afternoon and was granted bail.

"He's out on bail and he's got bail condition and he's to appear in the High Court next month," Ms Mua said, later correcting the next court date to July 30.

"He's to surrender his travel documents, passport, and he's to report in to the nearest police post to his home every Thursday."

Chaudhry, who was Fiji's first ethnic Indian leader, was charged with 12 offences relating to tax evasion and money laundering, Ms Mua said.

He did not enter any pleas, according to the fijivillage news website.

On May 19, 2000, failed businessman George Speight led a group of special force soldiers into Fiji's parliament, where he seized Chaudhry and his government, holding them hostage for 56 days.

During the hostage period, the Fiji Military Forces took power, declared martial law and installed an interim prime minister, Laisenia Qarase, who a year later won the post in a democratic election.

Chaudhry never returned to office, but he has since served as finance minister in Commodore Frank Bainimarama's interim government, which seized power from Mr Qarase in a 2006 coup.

Speight and co-conspirators, Timoci Silatolu and Josefa Nata, were convicted of treason and jailed for life.

Speight, who was initially sentenced to death but had his term commuted to life, is serving his time on Nukulau Island, east of Suva, while Silatolu and Nata are in the country's maximum security prison.

Chaudhry was the leader of the Fiji Labour Party until 2008 and controversially backed Commodore Bainimarama's 2006 bloodless coup, in which the military leader seized power from Mr Qarase's government.

- AAP