By YEHIURA HRIEHWAZI
JULIAN Moti has almost become a household name in PNG, but how much do we really know about this man who is in the centre of a diplomatic wrangle in the Pacific?
Moti was the attorney-general of the Solomon Islands until the recent no-confidence vote against his friend and prime minister, Manasseh Sogavare.
Born in Fiji, Moti studied in Australia where he later became Adjunct Professor of Law at Bond University on the Gold Coast in 1992.
He taught comparative constitutional law, public and private international law, transnational litigation and arbitration, international trade, finance and investment in Australasia and the Pacific.
He was founding president of the Pacific Islands branch of the International Law Association (ILA), serves on its Committee on Compensation for Victims of War and is a Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Law and Governance at Jawaharlal Nehru University and the Gujarat National Law University in India.
In December 1997, a 13-year-old girl in Vanuatu, where Moti had set up a legal practice, reported to the Ombudsman Commission that she had lived with him for about six months that year; that he beat and raped her.
She also claimed that when she became pregnant, he forced her to have an abortion.
The Sydney Morning Herald of Australia reported that it had seen six disturbing statements attributed to her over a period of four months. All were in English, though it appeared she only spoke French.
None was in her own writing. None was sworn.
The underlying story did not change from statement to statement, but details were contradictory.
Others appeared fanciful.
In one instance, she claimed he had three testicles, but a Port Villa medical officer who examined Moti concluded that he had two.
At one stage, the girl withdrew her allegations entirely, then renewed them a few weeks later saying her previous statement was “not of my own free will” and asked police to investigate.
In several statements, she described being beaten and raped by Moti but in others, she said she loved him very much.
In one statement in March 1998, she said: “He is a reach (sic) man; he can take me anywhere I wanted and this is my belief of my future with Julian because he is so kind ...”
That same year, Moti was arrested and charged with several counts of unlawful sexual intercourse.
A magistrate’s court ruled that Moti had a case to answer but he appealed and the Court of Appeal ordered that the matter be heard by another magistrate.
The proceedings involved a number of distinguished visiting judges: John Von Doussa, now the president of Australia’s Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, Bruce Robertson, the president of the New Zealand Law Commission, and Daniel Fatiaki, now chief justice of Fiji.
Moti was represented by Ian Barker, QC, from Australia and Dr David Chaikin, now an academic at Sydney University Law School.
The prosecutor was another Australian Terry Gardner.
In 1999, in a one-day hearing in Port Vila, magistrate Bruce Kalotri ruled that Moti had no case to answer and described the prosecution as “unjustified and oppressive”.
No appeal was filed and Vanuatu authorities considered the case closed.
No so, according to Australia. Then foreign minister Alexander Downer blasted Vanuatu for not bringing Moti to justice.
He also attacked PNG’s justice system for preventing his extradition to Australia and slammed Solomon Islands for appointing him attorney-general.
Moti did not take the Australian government’s assault sitting down: last year, he raised questions about the employment terms of the Solomons’ police commissioner, Shane Castles – an Australian police officer seconded to the position in 2005.
Amongst other things, Castles included indemnity against suits.
And although Castles is officially answerable to the Solomon Islands government as head of the Royal Solomon Islands Police, under an agreement with the Australian government made in April 2005, he remains an employee of the Australian federal police.
His salary, entitlements, accommodation, phone, travel and vehicle are all paid for by Australia.
It has been implied that Castles was a strategic plant as part of Australia’s objective to increase its power in the Solomons.
Although the Australian government maintained that Castles is officially answerable to the Solomons Island government, then prime minister Sogavare repeatedly accused the police commissioner of being “answerable to Canberra”.
His conviction only increased in October with the audacious arrest of the then immigration minister Peter Shanel, for allegedly lying to the commissioner about his intention to issue Moti a permit to enter the country.
Shanel was charged with perverting the course of justice, misleading a police officer and misleading a public servant.
The arrest of one of his ministers significantly upped the ante for Sogavare, who was already engaged in a diplomatic row with Canberra over his decision to expel high commissioner Cole in September.
In an interview with Australia’s Channel Nine this year, Moti said that he felt awful being chased around by Australia like a fugitive.
“It feels awful. I’m really tired. I can’t comprehend why I would be cast as a fugitive,” he told reporter Sarah Ferguson.
“It seems to me that my being attorney-general is the reason I was declared a fugitive.
“And it is an awful feeling. I’m really distressed. I’m also unhappy that Australia, a country which I loved so much, decided to brand me in the way that they have.”
He said it was a simple matter of law when he was first charged with the offences.
“And it was a simple matter of law that justice was delivered to me in the form it did, which exonerated me from any involvement in those matters,” he said.
“How many times does one have to prove one’s innocence? I got my justice in Vanuatu and I’m very angry that the Australian government doesn’t dignify the judicial system in Vanuatu with justice,” he said, and maintained that he did not have an abusive relationship with the girl or tried to buy off her family.