THE alleged assault by Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama on suspended Opposition MP Pio Tikoduadua outside Parliament on August 9 could amount to common assault under the Crimes Act.
This was the view of Opposition MP and member of the Parliamentary Privileges Committee, Mosese Bulitavu while they were deliberating on a matter of privilege against the two MPs in Parliament on September 5.
“It is quite difficult because this is a parliamentary committee decision on what happened in Parliament,” he told the committee, the verbatim report of the meeting revealed.
“Let me talk about if it was before the court. If it was before the court, I will take, say, because honourable Tikoduadua has committed something inside the House, so probably this is the only body — the privileges committee.
“But for what the honourable Prime Minister did, that amounts to common assault under Section 274 of the Crimes Act.” Under common law, Mr Bulitavu said a touch was common assault.
“One thing about Section 274 of the Crimes Act, it does not define the intention and there are case laws.
“I brought a few case laws here with me, just one last year in the High Court in Lautoka where the judge has said ‘in common assault, you do not need to prove intention, you don’t have to prove injury’.
