The Suva High Court has dismissed a State application for a mistrial in the health tender case involving former Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama, former Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, and former Health Minister Neil Sharma.

Justice Usaia Ratuvili ruled that the application failed to meet the high threshold required for a mistrial, emphasizing the Court’s inherent power to regulate its own proceedings.

He noted that while mistrial powers are not expressly legislated, they are derived from inherent jurisdiction and Section 202 of the Criminal Procedure Act 2009.

The State argued that procedural errors and misconduct by the first accused and his counsel compromised trial fairness.

Prosecutors claimed these issues were incurable, necessitating a restart before a different court.

Their concerns included the acceptance of informal applications, bench comments allegedly affecting witness credibility, and failures regarding pre-trial procedures and amended pleas.

Additionally, the prosecution accused the defense of deliberately delaying proceedings and failing to challenge evidence promptly, claiming this prejudiced the State’s case.

Justice Ratuvili rejected these submissions, stating the mistrial threshold is intentionally high to prevent parties from restarting to address case weaknesses.

He emphasized the public interest in seeing a commenced trial reach its conclusion unless there is a clear risk of a miscarriage of justice.

The judge found the issues raised did not render the trial irretrievable, noting that evidence admissibility remains within the Court’s discretion.

Regarding the lack of formal pleas to amended charges, the Court ruled this was not fatal, as all parties had proceeded based on “not guilty” positions.

Justice Ratuvili further deemed the application premature since the key witness was still under examination.

Following the dismissal, the trio formally pleaded not guilty to the amended information through their counsel.

The trial continues next Tuesday.

Stream the best of Fiji on VITI+. Anytime. Anywhere.