Sacked Solomon Islands attorney-general Julian Moti is adamant the reason he is in a Queensland jail cell today is because his ego got the better of him at a Christmas party in Sydney three years ago, reports The Australian.
The Australian lawyer, arrested last Thursday night on child sex charges, claims he is innocent and a victim of a “politically motivated” conspiracy, hatched by the Howard government, to clip his growing influence as a backroom adviser to leaders throughout the Pacific.
Loaded up with a few cocktails, Moti, better known for hubris than any show of humility, boasted to fellow partygoers that he had recently been sounded out for the job as attorney-general of Solomon Islands.
The problem, according to Moti, was that mingling among the crowd of foreign diplomats, federal politicians and academics were a few senior bureaucrats from Australia’s department of foreign affairs and trade (DFAT).
In Moti’s mind, it was the beginning of a return to a dark moment in his past – now almost 10 years ago – when he was charged with sexually abusing the 13-year-old daughter of a business associate in Vanuatu, where he had set up a thriving legal practice.
The charges had been dismissed in 1999 by a Vanuatu magistrate.
But several weeks after the December 2004 party in Sydney, the Fijian-born lawyer, who is also an Australian citizen, claims the AFP began sniffing around Port Vila, Vanuatu’s capital, in a bid to “dredge up” the case.
The reason: he was regarded by Canberra as a “dissident”, a trusted adviser who would push the Pacific’s leaders to resist toeing Australia’s line in return for their aid money.
It is a claim that has been repeatedly dismissed by the AFP and former Howard government ministers, who insisted the investigation had to wait for the Vanuatu courts to finalise the case with several hearings, including over court costs.
But the conspiracy theory is likely to dominate Moti’s defence after he was charged by Queensland police under Australia’s Child Sex Tourism Act.
Moti is also likely to attack his accuser, now 23, and others – including her brother and Moti’s housemaid, who have given statements that were not taken in the initial prosecution.
Moti has claimed that there were major discrepancies in the statements and that the AFP coached the complainant and witnesses during interviews in Brisbane and Vanuatu over the past 18 months.
But even before facing a jury, Moti is likely to claim he cannot get a fair
trial because of the publicity surrounding the case – including the public attacks of former Australian foreign affairs minister Alexander Downer.
He claims three of his witnesses have since died and he has been deprived of time to mount a proper defence. It will be a case that will captivate Australia and the Pacific. – PNS