Pacific

Former Solomons AG Moti blasts Australian police for abuse of judicial process

16:28 pm on 18 December 2009

A former Solomon Islands Attorney General Julian Moti has criticised Australian Federal Police for what he calls an outrageous abuse of process in its pursuit of child sex charges against him.

A Brisbane court this week ordered all charges against Mr Moti related to the alleged rape of a 13-year-old girl in Vanuatu in 1997 to be dropped.

While Vanuatu's court system dismissed the charges against Julian Moti in 1999, the police revived the allegations in late 2004.

The Brisbane court quashed the charges after ruling that money paid to the alleged victim and her family by the police brought the administration of justice into disrepute.

The police had paid the witness and her family at least 130,000 US dollars between 2006 and 2009.

In his first public statement since the verdict, Mr Moti told the World Socialist Web Site that the Australian police had used bribery to dredge up the allegations.

Mr Moti has asked his lawyers to refer the police to the Commonwealth Ombudsman, the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity, and the Commonwealth Auditor General.