Tuisolia case further adjourned
Tuisolia's lawyer, Davinesh Sharma is now questioning why an important piece of evidence was presented to the Courts today, only after they raised queries yesterday in their submission.
Sharma raised concern with the late disclosure, as the witness, who was at the time of the alleged offence the General Manager Finance for Airports Fiji Limited, was in charge of the final Annual report and had clearly stated in his caution statement that there was no policy put in place by the AFL Board of Directors governing the use of the Company credit card and that the Board were the only ones who had the power to issue credit-cards.
High Court Judge, Justice Daniel Goundar this afternoon heard that the statement had been taken on the 23rd of November, 2007 and was only presented in Court by FICAC after Sharma raised concern yesterday that the two other witnesses were not the ones that had powers when it came to the use of the company credit card.
FICAC lawyer Madhawa Tennakoon in objecting to the stay application, says there was no abuse of the process of the court system by FICAC as they were the ones who allowed for time to be granted to Tuisolia's lawyers to look at new disclosures and had also taken time out to amend the initial 44 charges that were brought against Tuisolia.
Tennakoon also told the Court that FICAC was against a stay order being granted and were ready to ensure that the main witness, who currently resides in Auckland could be brought into the country for the trial and that if there was a single count against Tuisolia that cannot be maintained in court, FICAC were ready to proceed without the charge.
Meanwhile, Tennakoon in defending FICAC's decision to prosecute Tuisolia also revealed that Tuisolia's predecessor should also be taken to task for the abuse of office for misusing the company credit card as they both knew that it was wrong to classify credit card expenditure under sundry expenses in the final account books.
The matter has now been adjourned to the 19th of March for a decision on whether a stay order will be granted.
Tuisolia is charged with abuse of office and fraudulent conversion while he was the CEO for AFL from 2003 to 2006.
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