Last week, a video was leaked showing Fijian police torturing a suspected prison escapee. Normally when confronted with such clear evidence of abuse, political leaders acknowledge that it is a crime and promise an investigation. Fiji's military dictator Voreqe Bainimarama OTOH has come out in support of the torturers:
Fiji's military strongman Voreqe Bainimarama has come out in strong support for the police involved in a violent beating of prisoners caught on video this week.
Speaking to the website Fijivillage, he said the escaped prisoners had terrorised Fiji before being caught.
"At the end of the day, I will stick by my men, by the police officers or anyone else that might be named in this investigation," he told Fijivillage.
"We cannot discard them just because they've done their duty in looking after the security of this nation and making sure we sleep peacefully at night."
According to Coup 4.5, which has been systematically identifying the perpetrators so there will be justice one day, Bainimarama has also forbidden any investigation. Which means that justice for this crime will have to wait until he is out of office. Alternatively, now that their names are known, they can be prosecuted in any civilised country (such as New Zealand) which claims universal jurisdiction for acts of torture. And as one of them is allegedly a rugby sevens player, getting them may simply be a matter of time...
