By ELIZABETH VUVU
THE trial of four Fijians charged with training an illegal army in Bougainville will proceed after the Buka National Court threw out their application for the case to be dismissed.
They had claimed under Section 53(5) of the Criminal Code, the prosecution had to proceed with the case within six months of the alleged offence but had failed to do so.
Justice David Cannings said, however, that the six-month requirement only applied to the time the prosecution commenced its case, “when information was laid”.
He said it did not refer to the time when a person was committed for trial, when an indictment was presented or when the trial began.
In the present case, the information was laid on Feb 20, two days after the last day on which the alleged offences were committed, he said.
“This is well within the six-month time limit set by Section 53(5). The prosecution was therefore not time-barred,” he said in his ruling last week.
Aliki Moroca, Kalivati Muriatabua, Manasa Dumucoto and Jolame Fukireva are alleged to have conducted military training on Bougainville in February this year.
They had arrived on Bougainville on October 2005 and spent most of their time around Tonu in Siwai, allegedly helping to organise and train an illegal army belonging to U-Vistract principal Noah Musingku.
The Fijians, who were former members of the Fiji Defence Force, have also been charged with helping to establish a paramilitary force.