Judgment Day Today
Court officials have confirmed that the Acting Chief Justice, Anthony Gates has stated that the ruling in relation to the Laisenia Qarase and Commodore Frank Bainimarama case will be delivered at 9:30 this morning.
The High Court panel of judges who heard the case was Justice Gates, Justice John Byrne and Justice Davendra Pathik. It is not known at this stage on whether they have written separate rulings or the judgment will be a combined one.
Qarase's counsel wants the court to declare that the event of December 5th, 2006 was illegal and that the interim government is illegal.
They have also argued that parliament is still in existence as Commodore Bainimarama did not have any powers to dissolve parliament and appoint Doctor Jona Senilagakali as interim Prime Minister.
They said Commodore Bainimarama had no powers under the constitution to step into the shoes of President Iloilo and take action from December 5th, 2006 and they also questioned the events of January 4th, 2007 when Commodore Bainimarama handed executive powers back to the President.
Qarase's counsel said that the President Ratu Josefa Iloilo also made illegal decisions by appointing an interim government in January 2007 and they also argue that all the promulgations of the interim government are illegal.
The legal counsel for Commodore Bainimarama and others have argued that the events of December 5th occurred due to an imminent threat of foreign intervention and they also provided evidence that Laisenia Qarase had requested for military intervention from Australia.
They also said that the President had to take action as he was not advised of several matters of national interest by Qarase when he was the Prime Minister.
It had also been argued that President Iloilo used his reserved powers to move the country forward by appointing the interim government as Qarase had fled to Vanuabalavu.
Bainimarama's counsel also stated in court that Qarase had endorsed himself that he was no longer the Prime Minister of the country by writing a letter to the Prime Minister's Office after the events of December 2006, requesting for his pension as a former Prime Minister.
It was also revealed in court during the case that other parliamentarians and Ministers of Qarase's government had also applied for pension and were now receiving the payment.
The ruling will be delivered at 9:30am and may take about two hours and for the first time ever Fijivillage has been given approval to take a live feed from the Judge's Chair as he delivers his ruling.
Stay with us we will bring you details and analysis of the court ruling later this morning.
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