[File Photo]
Former Attorney-General Graham Leung says constitutional immunity for past coups should remain but anyone involved in a future coup should face prosecution and be barred from entering politics.
Leung made the comments while appearing before the Constitution Review Commission during discussions on whether Fiji’s constitutional immunity provisions should be changed.
The CRC Commissioner stressed that constitutional immunity did not begin with the 2013 Constitution but has existed since the 1987 coup and was retained in the 1990, 1997 and 2013 Constitutions.
“I was wanting to seek, because we have a Supreme Court ruling as well around this sensitive matter, and to add further to this is the question of setting in the historical events.”
Leung states that while immunity for past events should remain, the Constitution should make it clear that anyone who carries out a coup in the future will not receive the same protection.
He adds that this is to send a warning to anybody out there who feels that they can use the precedent of the past as a get out of jail card in the future. I think that’s what I had in mind.
He says this would send a strong message that future coups will have legal consequences.
“But recognising that it’s a poison chalice that we need to do something about, make provision in the Constitution… and say explicitly that if you’re going to do a coup in the future… you won’t get immunity from prosecution.”
Leung also raised concerns about what he described as a contradiction in Fiji’s justice system, where people convicted of ordinary crimes face punishment, while those involved in coups have been granted immunity.
