Five police officers in Fiji have been suspended pending investigations into two separate incidents.
Police said the officers were sent home this week on half pay over issues of alleged inaction highlighted recently by the Director of Public Prosecutions.
Rusiate Tudravu. Photo: Fiji Police Force
Acting Police Commissioner Rusiate Tudravu said the officers were being investigated for alleged failure to conduct their duties.
Tudravu ordered the investigation after the Director of Public Prosecutions, Christopher Pryde, raised concerns that police officers were failing to properly caution suspects on their right to silence upon arrest.
Pryde said when not properly issued, any statements made to police could be ruled inadmissible by the court.
Tudravu said the force had no place for officers who were not committed to serving the public.
He said the officers faced possible removal from the police force if found guilty.
Woman claims police brutality
Meanwhile, police were also investigating claims made by a woman that officers assaulted her brother while arresting him near their Suva home this week.
Tudravu ordered the investigation after the woman took to social media to raise her concerns.
In a video posted on Facebook on Thursday, an emotional Marisela Archibald relayed her account of the alleged incident outside the Raiwaqa Police Station where she claimed her brother was being held.
"This police officer choked him by his neck," she said. "He was choking him. He wasn't breathing.
"My other brother tried to stop him [police officer]. Why did they have to choke him? They kicked him, they pulled him.
"My mum is in there telling them to stop choking him and holding him down."
Archibald also claimed her brother had attempted to take his own life on the morning of the alleged incident after a recent domestic issue.
Archibald said she and her mother found her intoxicated brother walking in the middle of the road.
She said they tried to get him off the street when the police vehicle stopped.
Police claim man resisted arrest
The Fiji Times newspaper reported police spokesperson Ana Naisoro said the officers were responding to a call for assistance at a taxi depot in Raiwai as a man was drunk and incapable.
Naisoro said when police responded, the man had allegedly resisted arrest "which resulted in a confrontation with the arresting officer where his uniform was torn".
Naisoro said the police officer continued in his attempt to arrest the suspect and was assisted by other officers who were passing by in another vehicle.
The man was "eventually arrested and taken into custody at the Raiwaqa Police Station".
Naisoro said acting Police Commissioner Rusiate Tudravu has assured the young woman's family that if there is evidence the officers abused their powers while effecting the arrest, they will be held accountable.