MOTI TO BE TRIED FOR CHILD SEX
AFP
Former Solomon Islands attorney-general Julian Moti will be tried in Australia for the alleged rape of a 13-year-old girl in Vanuatu after an appeals court Friday overturned a freeze on the case.
Fiji-born Moti won a permanent stay on the case in December, after a Brisbane Supreme Court ruling that Australian police payments to the alleged victim and her family "brought the administration of justice into disrepute".
The judge said the police payments, made to compensate the victim's family while she made her case against Moti, raised serious questions about Australia's justice system and were an "affront to the public conscience".
But the Court of Criminal Appeal Friday overturned the stay, finding the payments were not made in bad faith or without authority, and that the charges against Moti -- an Australian citizen -- were too serious to be abandoned.
"This was a different case from the ordinary example of an Australian tourist on a short trip abroad taking advantage of individual children over a short period of time," said appeal judge Cate Holmes.
"The case was an exceptional one because the offences were committed over a six-month period against a 13-year-old complainant, with allegations of very serious sexual assault, in circumstances where the accused was 20 years older than the complainant and had some ability to interfere in the machinery of government."
Charges over the 1997 rape were orignally dismissed by a Vanuatu court and Moti said Australia only revived them in 2006 to stop him from becoming attorney-general of the Solomon Islands.
He sparked a diplomatic row after skipping bail in Papua New Guinea and fleeing via military aircraft to the Solomon Islands.
Then-Solomons prime minister Manasseh Sogavare appointed Moti attorney-general and refused to extradite him, prompting strong protests from Australia.
Moti was ultimately deported when Sogavare was ousted in December 2007, and will now be tried on the charges at a date to be determined.
Former Solomon Islands attorney-general Julian Moti will be tried in Australia for the alleged rape of a 13-year-old girl in Vanuatu after an appeals court Friday overturned a freeze on the case.Fiji-born Moti won a permanent stay on the case in December, after a Brisbane Supreme Court ruling that Australian police payments to the alleged victim and her family "brought the administration of justice into disrepute".
The judge said the police payments, made to compensate the victim's family while she made her case against Moti, raised serious questions about Australia's justice system and were an "affront to the public conscience".
But the Court of Criminal Appeal Friday overturned the stay, finding the payments were not made in bad faith or without authority, and that the charges against Moti -- an Australian citizen -- were too serious to be abandoned.
"This was a different case from the ordinary example of an Australian tourist on a short trip abroad taking advantage of individual children over a short period of time," said appeal judge Cate Holmes.
"The case was an exceptional one because the offences were committed over a six-month period against a 13-year-old complainant, with allegations of very serious sexual assault, in circumstances where the accused was 20 years older than the complainant and had some ability to interfere in the machinery of government."
Charges over the 1997 rape were orignally dismissed by a Vanuatu court and Moti said Australia only revived them in 2006 to stop him from becoming attorney-general of the Solomon Islands.
He sparked a diplomatic row after skipping bail in Papua New Guinea and fleeing via military aircraft to the Solomon Islands.
Then-Solomons prime minister Manasseh Sogavare appointed Moti attorney-general and refused to extradite him, prompting strong protests from Australia.
Moti was ultimately deported when Sogavare was ousted in December 2007, and will now be tried on the charges at a date to be determined.
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