The prosecution lawyer in the trial of the 8 men charged with Conspiracy to murder the Army Commander Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama and others, has made a submission to allow similar facts from the 2000 mutiny at the Army camp, to be allowed in Court as evidence.

David Toganivalu, this morning made the submission saying that the facts were related to the case as four of the accused, Barbadoes Mills, Feoko Gadekibau, Eparama Waqatairewa and Kaminieli Vosavere were also involved in the 2000 mutiny.

He also mentioned that they wanted to highlight the specialist training the accused persons had received as part of the CRW unit and stated that these facts could also allow for the accused persons to be able to have a fair trial.

However, defense lawyer Iqbal Khan objected to the submission saying that there were close to 20 other army officers involved in the 2000 mutiny and if the application was to be allowed, then the facts would be highly prejudicial to the eight accused in this trial.

Khan also raised the fact that the mutiny of 2000 happened a long time ago, in fact 10 years ago adding that back in 2000 the accused were soldiers however at the moment they are no longer employed by the Military, making reference to the current charge of conspiracy to murder, and it would not be relevant to this case.

However, Judge Justice Paul Madigan told Khan that this is a case of circumstances where it is up to the assessors to decide on the facts.

A decision on whether or not the application of similar facts is allowed into Court will be made at midday today.