Court

Justice Thushara to continue in case

May 17, 2022 10:00 am

MP Ratu Suliano Matanitobua. [File Photo]

Justice Thushara Kumarage will continue to preside in the alleged fraud case against Social Democratic Liberal Party MP Ratu Suliano Matanitobua.

He has refused and dismissed a recusal application filed by Ratu Suliano’s counsel, Filimoni Vosarogo.

The Judge says he finds the grounds of recusal filed by the applicant baseless.

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The Social Democratic Liberal Party MP is charged with one count of giving false information to a public servant and one count of obtaining financial advantage.

Ratu Suliano allegedly falsely stated that his permanent place of residence is Namosi Village, in Namosi.

He then allegedly obtained over $38,300 between August 2019 and April 2020.

High Court judge Justice Thushara Kumarage says he will be shunning from his professional duties if he is going to denounce his responsibility on a mere suspicion of bias in the absence of cogent reasons to recuse himself from presiding over Ratu Suliano Matanitobua’s case.

He says the six grounds of recusal filed by the Opposition MP’s counsel Filimoni Vosarogo lacks cogent justification and are without merit.

In his ruling this morning, he addressed the concerns raised by the applicant in his recusal application.

The high court says though the witnesses who will give evidence representing Parliament in matters pertaining to Nawaikula and Matanitobua could be the same, their evidence will be in relation to the interaction they had with the accused. I

It says the witnesses who represented Parliament in the Nawaikula case had said the MP was not suspected at first.

Justice Kumarage says the applicant will have the right to cross-examine the same witnesses and challenge their evidences and there is no danger of the court to adopt the evidence led in the previous case.

He adds that he has formulated the definition for the word ‘permanent residency’ in line with common law authorities since there is no definition in the Fijian judiciary literature.

In this case, he says the circumstances in relation to residency differs and the definition will be applied subjectively.

The applicant also claims that the elements of the offence that he is charged with is similar to Nawaikula’s case, the judge says if one is charged with the same offence in a particular jurisdiction, you have to expect the elements to be the same no matter if you are Fijian or a Russian.

Justice Kumarage says he will examine every witness in this case as per the demeanour and tenacity of the witnesses in court.

The trial hearing for Matanitobua will commence tomorrow morning in the Anti-Corruption Court in Suva.