Fiji’s former long-serving prime minister Frank Bainimarama has been sentenced to a year in prison for perverting the course of justice, the country’s director of public prosecutions said.
Bainimarama was initially spared jail in the case during sentencing last month, before an appeal by the country’s director for public prosecutions. On Thursday, that appeal was upheld by Fiji’s high court.
After the hearing, supporters of his FijiFirst party gathered outside the high court in Suva and sang a Fijian hymn.
Regardless of the ruling, Bainimarama would remain the leader of the FijiFirst party, said Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, a former attorney general and the party’s former general secretary.
“Bainimarama will continue to be the leader of the FijiFirst party. Come 2026, we will deal with it,” he told a press conference held by the party after the ruling.
Unity Fiji party leader Savenaca Narube said he believed the court ruling would not cause any political chaos. “We believe that everybody will follow the law, and for those who don’t agree, there’s a court process to follow. That’s what democracy is all about,” he said.
“The court case and sentencing show the accountability framework is working, that people who break the law, doesn’t matter who they are, they are brought to account.”
A former military chief, Bainimarama came to power in a bloodless coup in 2006 and later won democratic elections in 2014 and 2018.
He was found guilty this month by the high court of attempting to pervert the course of justice while prime minister by telling then police commissioner Sitiveni Qiliho not to investigate allegations of graft at the region’s University of South Pacific, court documents show.
Qiliho was sentenced to two years in jail at the same hearing for abuse of office, the Fiji’s office of the director of public prosecutions said in a statement.
The case relates to allegations of financial mismanagement at the university, one of the best in the region and which is collectively owned by 12 Pacific states.
Bainimarama led the Pacific island nation for 16 years until narrowly losing an election in December 2022 to a coalition of parties led by current prime minister, Sitiveni Rabuka.