The Suva High Court this morning cautioned the man awaiting the sentence for a murder charge, to be careful of what he said in Court.

Anesh Ram was yesterday found guilty of murdering the 22 year old woman and then dumping her body in the Omkar Road River in June 2008.

This morning Ram's lawyer informed High Court Judge Justice Salesi Temo that Ram wanted to say a few words before hearing sentencing submissions from both lawyers.

Ram then told the Court that he had lost trust in the justice system as he did not kill the 22 year old woman, adding he thought that by coming to Court he would have had his side of the story heard but this was not so as he has been found guilty of murder.

Justice Temo told Ram that the assessors had already made their decision as well as the Court adding that by his speech, Ram showed no remorse at all for what he had done and was testing the Court's patience.

Justice Temo then told Ram that if he had any problems with the assessors findings, then he would have to take the matter up with the Fiji Court of Appeal.

Meanwhile, the High Court heard the submissions on sentencing for Ram earlier today, where the State was pushing for a 20 year sentence.    

However Ram's lawyer, Samanunu Vaniqi told the Court that a 20 year sentence was excessive highlighting the case where Dip Chand was sent to jail for 20 years for the murder of three girls whereas her client had only murdered one woman.

Vaniqi asked the Court to consider sending her client to jail for only 10 years.

She also asked the Court to take into account his mitigation where Ram said that his mother was a diabetic and suffered from high blood pressure and that she was sickly.

Ram will be sentenced at 10am next Tuesday.


Story by: Tokasa Rainima and Paradise Tabucala