The government has strongly denounced the failure by the embassy of the United States of America to provide Fiji's Chief Justice Anthony Gates with a visa to represent Fiji at the 9th Session of Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
The meeting is being held from today to the 10th of December at the UN headquarters in New York and the invitation was extended to Fiji by the ICC.
Attorney General, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum said Fiji has made a number of changes over the past year to comply with the Rome Statute, and it was only right to ensure that Fiji was represented by a senior judicial officer.
Sayed-Khaiyum said in diplomatic language, the non-issuance of visa on time effectively tantamounts to rejection.
He said there have been other recent cases where the US embassy has failed to give a visa on time.
Sayed-Khaiyum said Fiji will now be represented at the New York meeting by its Permanent Representative to the UN, Peter Thomson and his deputy, Luke Daunivalu.
Story by: Vijay Narayan
Govt condemns US embassy for failure to issue visa to Chief Justice
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