The Fijian military have continued their crackdown against dissent, this time targetting the media. The editor of the Fijian Daily Post has been arrested and will be deported:
Fiji's Military confirmed today that they had arrested Daily Post editor-in-chief, Robert Wolfgram after a wild goose chase in Suva.Military spokesman Major Neumi Leweni said they managed to arrest him at the Daily Post office before taking him up to the Queen Elizabeth Barracks for questioning.
But as the Fiji Times notes, Wolfgram is a Fijian citizen. As such, he cannot legally be deported from Fiji. But none of that seems to matter to Fiji's thuggish military, who seem to now be sentencing their opponents to indefinite exile for unspecified offences, without any testing of evidence before a court or jury. That is, when they're not simply threatening to rape them...
In this case, Australia. Wolfgram is an Australian citizen.
ReplyDeleteDigging around, I might not be correct; Fiji seems to be one of those backward countries which prohibit dual citizenship, so Wolfgram might be able to be legally deported. However, its highly questionable whether the proper legal process is being followed here, and evicting someone from a country for saying things you don't like is certainly a gross attack on freedom of speech.
Wolgramm is back at work, after having made a complaint to the Fiji Human Rights Commission. He was born in Fiji but became an Australian citizen in 1989. He has a valid work permit. His wife and some of his children are also Fiji born. This incident appears to be one of many examples of intimidation.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=53605