Fiji's 2000 coup leader George Speight seeks pardon

George Speight, the leader of Fiji's 2000 coup, has applied for a presidential pardon under a mercy clause, raising the possibility of his release from prison after serving over 20 years of a lifetime sentence.

The country's Attorney-General and the Mercy Commission chair, Siromi Turaga, confirmed to RNZ Pacific Speight's application is under consideration.

The process for the application began with the Fiji Corrections Service, followed by a case management process through the judiciary.

Subsequently, the Mercy Commission has held a meeting to discuss the matter.

"I can't give you more information," Turaga said, when asked what the Commission's recommendations were to the President Ratu Wiliame Katonivere.

The application for a presidential pardon falls under the provisions of Fiji's 2013 Constitution.

Under those provisions, the Mercy Commission can recommend to the President to exercise the power of mercy by granting a free or conditional pardon or remitting all or part of the punishment for a convicted person.

RNZ Pacific asked Turaga when a decision would be made regarding Speight. His response: "Again, it's confidential. There is nothing more I can tell you."

The final decision now rests with President Ratu Wiliame, who will determine whether the 2000 coup leader will be granted his freedom.

This week, Turaga told local media that it may take around a month before a decision is reached.

Overthrowing a government

Speight's arrest and subsequent conviction stemmed from his actions on May 19, 2000, when he led an armed group of men to the Fiji parliament complex in Suva, taking then-Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry and several government officials hostage for 56 days.

Chaudhry was Fiji's first ethnic Indian prime minister and his largely Indo-Fijian dominated administration was into its first full year of steering the country before months of simmering ethnic tensions exploded in the form of Speights violent coup.

"No more of this Western-style democratic elected box. First let's cement a political system that ensrines indigenous supremacy and then let's define the role of the other ethnic groups in Fiji," Speight said when he took over the government in 2000.

But two years later, he was found guilty of treason and originally sentenced to death, which was later commuted to life in prison by then-President, the late Ratu Josefa Iloilo.

Fiji has had four coups in the past three decades; the first two by then-military general and current prime minister Sitiveni Rabuka in 1987, and one in 2006 by former military commander-turned-democratically-elected prime minister Frank Bainimarama.

Speight's 2000 coup was the only civilian to raise an armed group to overthrow the government.

In 2002, Rabuka had stated a pardon for coup frontman Speight would be a catastrophe and could pave the way for more coups.

He said no foreign or local businessman would invest in Fiji again if Speight was released.

But a few years later Rabuka said Speight would succeed in politics on his release.

Then on the campaign trail last year, Rabuka further suggested that Speight's release was possible.

"Yes, Speight and others being jailed because of the 2000 coup can be released. It will be something we will need to look into," he said at a rally in 2022.

"The Mercy Commission will need to sit again to discuss and see whether Speight and others involved in the coup should be released."

He said Speight and his group would need a support letter from their village headman and pastor to be released.

Deputy Prime Minister Viliame Gavoka also stated while campaigning for the 2022 polls that his Social Democratic Liberal Party (Sodelpa) had been making its stance clear in parliament while in opposition.

"Speight and others should be released as they had spent enough time behind bars for their wrongdoings," Gavoka said.

'Wrong for me to give a view'

Deputy Prime Minister Biman Prasad told RNZ Pacific he was not able to express a view on this matter.

"I don't want to pre-empt anything," Prasad said.

"What the President might do or should do isn't for me to say because that would be wrong for me to do."

"Even to give a view as to what the President should or should not do, because that is not my job to express a view on how the President is going to follow the law and the process," he said.

Prasad said there is a law that allows people to seek pardon in the decision (prison sentence) and it has to be made by the President.

"Obviously, the President will consider all the views and circumstances surrounding that request, and he will make the right decision."

Fijians will now await President Ratu Wiliame's final verdict on whether Speight will be granted a presidential pardon and released from prison.