A tainted conviction

A Fijian court has convicted former Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase of corruption and abuse of office. The charges date from before he entered politics, and carry a potential jail sentence. Normally I'd be celebrating the conviction of a corrupt politician, because its important for all of us that those that abuse their office are held to account. But the problem is that thanks to the Fijian regime's corruption of the judicial system and undermining of judicial independence, we can't actually have any faith in the verdict. Fiji's coup has indelibly tainted this verdict. And if you oppose corruption and want to see it eliminated, that's a very bad thing indeed.