Former Attorney General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum

The medical reports were not clear to satisfy the court to grant the former Attorney General to travel to Singapore for medical assessment.

Chief Justice Salesi Temo while delivering his ruling on the bail application stated that the medical reports submitted were not clear on whether or not Sayed-Khaiyum had suffered a stroke, or whether he suffered life-threatening heart problems.

Temo said that the information submitted in the medical reports were not broken down by the doctors to assist him to decide on the submitted claims of the medical conditions.

He informed the court that he was not persuaded to accept the Sayed-Khaiyum’s application for bail variation, stating that his medical problems can be investigated and resolved in Fiji.

The former Attorney General was present in court this morning.

Sayed-Khaiyum’s counsel had submitted their request which the state opposed to saying there was no evidence that he suffered a stroke or that he had a life-threatening heart complication.

The state said accused was healthy-looking, and in their analysis of the medical reports submitted, there was no credible evidence to support his claims.

The state noted that this was merely an attempt by the accused to avoid the High Court trial, which was four weeks away.

The Chief Justice analyzed all the affidavits in his notice of motion.

Temo said that this cases appeared too lingered on in the magistrate court for about two years and stated the matter needs to be heard as soon as possible according to their case management policy.

While in substantive matter, the Acting Director of Public Prosecutions Nancy Tikoisuva stated they will calling on about 19 witnesses but that list is subject to changes once agreed facts and documents are ironed out.

The defense counsel stated that Saneem was seeking some documents to strengthen his defense

Sayed-Khaiyum, is facing one count of abuse of office while former Supervisor of Election Mohamed Saneem is facing receiving a corrupt benefit.

The case has now been set for trial from the 15th of September to the 3rd of October.

Bail has been extended for both the accused. The matter will called again on the 10th of September for mention of pre-trial and general review matters.

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