Transcript
MS: The public prosecutor is essentially the last stage of this case and his decision here to clear Frank Bainimarama means the prime minister has escaped completely unscathed from these allegations. This has galled a lot of government critics because there was footage of the incident on August 9th showing the prime minister grabbing and shoving Pio Tikoduadua outside parliament.
After the opposition MP raised these allegations in parliament the same day, police and the parliamentary speaker launched investigations. The speaker referred it to the privileges committee, which cleared Mr Bainimarama of assault. Police investigated the claims before handing it to the public prosecutor, who has now cleared him as well. The director of public prosecutions, Christopher Pryde says because parliament had already endorsed the committee's decision, no further action is needed. He says it would be inappropriate for it to go before the courts.
JB: Although the prime minister has been cleared, that's not the case for Pio Tikoduadua is it?
MS: No, this decision isn't the first defeat for the opposition MP. The privileges commitee found both he and Mr Bainimarama had breached privilege by verbally insulting one another and asked them to apologise to each other for that. The prime minister obliged but Mr Tikoduadua refused, meaning he was suspended without pay from parliament for six months. At the time, Mr Tikoduadua said it was a choice between his seat and his dignity, and he'd rather lose his seat. The NFP party has said it's considering an appeal. The party and others in opposition have criticised the entire process, which has taken more than 2 months and included a number of delays in the police investigation, which was referred back to police by the public prosecutor earlier this week. Police have repeatedly refused to comment on progress.
JB: Have there been any other losers in this affair?
MS: Yeah, no one from the government appears to have lost face over this, especially not the prime minister. But another two casualties were a couple of former parliamentary staffers who were made to resign because they were accused of leaking the footage of the incident to an anti-government blog which later released it on Facebook. One of the men denies leaking the video and says they were also asked to delete the footage from their phones. The privileges committee which cleared the prime minister has been criticised by the opposition because it ruled out the video as evidence during hearings, saying it wasn't credible.
