Vice-President given bail on Speight coup charges

SUVA - Fijian Vice-President Jope Naucabalavu Senioli appeared in a Suva court yesterday charged with capital and sedition offences related to a failed coup in 2000, a court official said.

Senioli, who was sworn in as President by rebel leader George Speight during the failed coup, was charged with taking an unlawful oath to commit a capital offence and to engage in a seditious enterprise.

Both charges carry the death penalty, which is usually commuted to life in prison in Fiji.

No plea was entered and Senioli is on bail to reappear on June 11. Four other men, one a minister in Fiji's Government and another a former high-ranking Army officer, face similar charges.

Speight, who toppled Fiji's first ethnic Indian Prime Minister in the name of indigenous Fijian rights, is serving a life sentence in an island jail off Suva.

Fiji was quiet after yesterday's court appearance.

The job of Vice-President is ceremonial, unlike that of President, who appoints and can dismiss the Prime Minister.

Senioli, one of Fiji's numerous chiefs at the time of the coup, was later sworn in as Vice-President by Fiji's Great Council of Chiefs, the country's indigenous ruling body.

The charging of Sports Minister Isireli Leweniqila is not likely to affect Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase's Government, which holds a large majority.

Army commander Frank Bainimarama said after the hearing: "The legal system must take its course and the result, either way, is going to benefit Fiji."

- REUTERS