Former Prime Minister and Fiji Labour Party Leader, Mahendra Chaudhry will be sentenced this Friday after the mitigation submissions by the lawyers tomorrow.
High Court Judge, Justice Paul Madigan has confirmed this after rejecting Chaudhry’s latest application for the charge against him to be quashed.
Justice Madigan said he sees no merit in the application.
Defence lawyer, Anand Singh had said in the application that the information filed against Chaudhry for breach of Sections 3, 4 and 26 of the Exchange Control Act require in law the approval of the Minister of Finance.
Singh said contrary to the provisions of the three sections of the Exchange Control Act, the particulars of the information set out in Chaudhry's charge alleged absence of the approval of the Governor of the Reserve Bank of Fiji, instead of the absence of the approval of the Minister.
Singh said the charge is defective and should be quashed.
Mahendra Chaudhry has been found guilty of all three counts of breaching the Exchange Control Act by High Court Judge, Justice Paul Madigan.
The judge earlier highlighted that the penalty for such charges ranges from two years imprisonment to fines amounting to three times of the value of the original amount in the offence.
In Chaudhry’s case, it would be 4.5 million Australian dollars.
Story by: Vijay Narayan and Tokasa Rainima
