Fiji justice and Sri Lankan judge mess

Prominent lawyer convicted for laughing at judicial malapropism

Imagine the scene; somewhere in Suva on a Sabbath Day in February. Attorney General and Minister of Almost Everything, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, is declaiming to an ‘informant’ who has just revealed that 25 days earlier a troublesome lawyer had posted on Facebook about a travelling judge, and that it had attracted much commentary from the local herd. Sayed-Khaiyum and the Sunday Informant especially note two comments. A Tomasi Tuitoga had tapped ‘saw that you could not resist RKN Richard Naidu.’ And there was Grace Wise: ‘OMG. Hope it’s not an expat judge.’ Turns out, she was on the money.

Richard Naidu. Photo Munro Leys

Sayed-Khaiyum read the offending item and acted. Sort of. One hundred and fifteen days later, Wednesday June 22, Sayed-Khaiyum filed a criminal complaint in Fiji’s High Court alleging that lawyer Richard Naidu had, in that Facebook post four months earlier, scandalised the judiciary and caused them shame by alleging that they could not spell. If he could be found guilty, Sayed-Khaiyum knew, Naidu would go to jail for a year (Sayed-Khaiyum would direct that), ending Naidu’s legal and political career. And Sayed-Khaiyum’s poll prospects looked decidedly dodgy, some judicial help would be handy.

In due course, on November 22, an imported Sri Lankan judge, Jude Nanayakkare, produced a meandering, barely-comprehensible,grammatically troubled and repetitive 43 page judgment finding Naidu guilty of contempt of court. Sentencing was set down for January 5. General elections take place on December 14. Timing is less than coincidental.

Rent-a-judge

So how was it that Nanayakkare, University of Colombo bachelor of laws (second class honours), and lawyer with 25 years experience, was sitting in Fiji? The short answer is that only lawyers from the collapsing economy of Sri Lanka can be lured to the job. Australia and New Zealand used to provide - mostly via aid payments - but one senior judge had his house burned down (by an army fellow now with the police) and another was threatened and his sentence ignored in the case of Voreqe Bainimarama’s killer brother-in-law, Francis Kean. And outside judges were disgusted when Fiji judges conspired with Bainimarama to approve his 2006 coup. So it's been low wage Sri Lankan judges, or none.