The two Chinese businessmen who are charged with one count of bribery have pleaded Guilty in the Suva High Court this afternoon.

The two accused Chen Xue Liang and De Chuan Zhao of China Huashi Enterprise Fiji Limited pleaded guilty to the amended charge of one count of bribery and are expected to be sentenced on Thursday.

The lawyer for the two accused had earlier in the day informed the Court that the two would plead guilty if the charge was amended.

When Court resumed this afternoon, the charge was amended and read that the two on the 28th of July last year, approached the Permanent Secretary for Finance John Prasad and tried to bribe him to promote and to let them carry out their operations in Fiji successfully and offered him $6,000 and a bag of Chinese tea.

In mitigation, their lawyer Gavin O'Driscoll through the assistance of an interpreter told the High Court to consider that the two supported their families back in China as well as their elderly parents and were not aware that bribery and giving gifts were not allowed in Fiji.

O'Driscoll told the High Court that he had been instructed to say that it was customary in China to hand out gifts to people you engage with in business.

O'Driscoll sought the leniency of the court saying that the two are remorseful and their actions were out of the authorization of their company and also highlighted that when they found out that gifts and bribery was illegal, they asked that the $6,000 be returned to them.

O'Driscoll said that the two Chinese men should be charged with a monetary fine of $2500 each, because they are businessman and will be a lesson to those from the private sector.

However High court Judge Justice Salesi Temo said that a monetary fine is not justifiable enough especially given that Fiji has high cases of corruption.

He highlighted that the Court system is not indifferent to the issue of corruption and bribery as the public is fed up with cases where corruption is rife and nothing is done to take the offenders to task.

Temo adjourned the case for sentencing on Thursday and told the lawyers to take time to refer to relevant authorities to ensure that appropriate sentence be handed down on the two accused.