The eight soldiers and police officer who assaulted 19 year old Nadi resident Sakiusa Rabaka, which resulted in his death, have each received a 4 year prison sentence.
Lautoka High Court judge Justice Daniel Gounder sentenced the nine members of the disciplined forces to 4 years for manslaughter and 4 months for the 5 counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
Justice Gounder ruled that the sentences are to be served concurrently.
Earlier this morning, Fiji Military Force Land Force Commander Colonel Pita Driti mitigated on behalf of the eight soldiers in the Lautoka High Court.
The soldiers were found guilty of manslaughter in relation to Sakiusa Rabaka's death in January 2007.
In a packed courtroom of friends and relatives of Rabaka and the accused persons and uniformed soldiers, Colonel Driti said the soldiers were loyal, obedient, hardworking and highly disciplined and all of them have a clean record without any previous conviction.
He added that the soldiers have shown signs of endurance in the assignments they were assigned to.
However, while passing sentence, Justice Gounder said the offences were committed in a joint enterprise and under the doctrine of joint enterprise, it does not matter who struck the fatal blow.
He added they all acted with a common intention to take the deceased and the complainants to a military training site called Black Rock to assault them.
Justice Gounder said while he considers their motive to arrest Rabaka and the complainants were to maintain law and order, the judge said he cannot ignore that they breached their legal duty to protect Rabaka and others while they were in custody.
Justice Gounder said instead of being the custodian of law, the nine took the law into their own hands and became both the jury of guilt and executor of punishment.
Rabaka died as a result of the assault he sustained at the Black Rock.
Meanwhile, the mother of late Sakiusa Rabaka, Alanieta Rabaka has accepted the judgment, adding that justice has prevailed.
