Nai Lalakai trial: Court rules there is a case to answer

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Lawyers Wylie Clarke and Devanesh Sharma outside the High Court in Suva yesterday. Picture: JONA KONATACI

NAI Lalakai letter writer Josaia Waqabaca and Nai Lalakai editor Anare Ravula have opted to remain silent in the Fiji Times sedition trial.

High Court judge Justice Thushara Rajasinghe today ruled there was a case to answer and Fiji Times editor-in-chief Fred Wesley was the first defence witness to give evidence at the High Court in Suva this morning.

Fiji Times publisher Hank Arts will decide whether he will give evidence after Wesley has given evidence.

Meanwhile, the Fiji Times company will be calling two witnesses for the trial.

The Fiji Times company is charged with one count of printing a seditious publication while Mr Arts is charged with one count of publishing in the Nai Lalakai a seditious article.

Mr Waqabaca is charged with one count of submitting for publication an article written by him with a seditious intention, while Ravula and Wesley are charged with one count each of having aided and abetted the publication of a letter in the Nai Lalakai newspaper on April 27, 2016, by failing to prevent its publication.

The trial continues.

Read a detailed report in tomorrow’s edition of The Fiji Times and in our E-Edition.

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