Lawyer representing former Nasinu town clerk Jaswant Kumar today highlighted ten grounds of their appeal to try and convince high court judge justice Priyentha Fernando to grant bail to his client pending the appeal of his sentence.

Lawyer Rajendra Chaudhry highlighted that their main grounds for seeking bail pending the appeal hearing is that the prosecution failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Kumar gained from the money which he was convicted for abusing while in office.

Chaudhry told the court that there were four elements in the charge which were abuse of office, Kumar being a public officer, he caused prejudice to the Nasinu Town council and committed an arbitrary act, however there is no element in the charge that Kumar had any personal gain.

Chaudhry said High Court Judge Justice Daniel Gounder erred in law when he stated in his sentencing of Kumar that prosecution had proven beyond reasonable doubt that Kumar had gained from his actions when no such evidence was ever brought before the court during the proceedings.

Chaudhry said another ground for their appeal would be that Judge Gounder did not give adequate directions to the assessors on how to treat the evidence of a hostile witness and also did not give adequate directions on media reports on the case.

He said another ground for seeking bail is the delay before the case is heard before the Fiji Court of Appeal.

FICAC Lawyer Laisa Lagilevu said Kumar=s case presents no special circumstances and that delays in such cases are inevitable as outlined in previous cases by the Appeals court.

She also stressed that loss of employment and being away from family are a direct consequence of a conviction and cannot be seen as a special circumstance.

Lagilevu also stressed that the Judge must consider whether the application meets the test that the appeal will have every chance of success before reaching a decision on bail.

Justice Fernando will make his ruling next Friday.