The Fiji Independent Commission Against Corruption (FICAC) has conceded that its officers made a “procedural timing oversight” when they arrested the former Fijian Broadcasting Corporation (FBC) chief executive Riyaz Sayed-Khaiyum on Monday, but insists the lapse was “not fatal” enough to invalidate the case.
In a press release issued this afternoon, Acting Commissioner Lavi Rokoika said she had already discussed the error with defence counsel and “was prepared to withdraw the current charge and proceed with a fresh arrest and charge,” an option that would have kept Sayed-Khaiyum in custody overnight. Defence lawyers, she noted, “did not consider this necessary.”
But at the hearing, the Defence Counsel conveyed to the Court what transpired at the FICAC office Rokoika says she accepts full responsibility for her officers’ actions but maintains that at no point were the accused’s constitutional rights were infringed, and no prejudice was caused to the accused’s liberty or fair trial rights.
Her statement follows a reprimand at the Suva Magistrates Court, where Magistrate Vinaina Diroiroi told FICAC to “get it right at the first place” after counsel Gul Fatima revealed that Sayed-Khaiyum had not been formally arrested and had not been cautioned before being charged.
Sayed-Khaiyum faces one count of abuse of office and an alternative count of general dishonesty – causing a loss while FBC’s chief financial officer Vimlesh Sagar is charged with one count of general dishonesty. The allegations relate to the purchase of a 3.0-litre Volkswagen Touareg valued at $207,470 between September and November 2022, which prosecutors say breached FBC’s tender rules and cost the company $84,470.
Both men were granted non-cash bail of $5,000 and ordered to re-appear on 4 September. Monday’s filing is the second time FICAC has brought the Touareg-related charges. The first indictment was withdrawn in May via a nolle prosequi as the case neared pre-trial disclosure, a fact the defence highlighted yesterday.
Rokoika took over at the helm of FICAC on May 30 after Commissioner Barbara Malimali was sacked by the President, following the Commission of Inquiry report into her appointment at FICAC.
