The Fiji Immigration Department has remained mum on the legal status of a man in the country who was produced in the Sigatoka Magistrate’s Court last Saturday charged with alleged child exploitation.
The 70-year-old foreign national is alleged to have committed child exploitation offences involving two victims aged 13 and 14 on three different occasions this year in Sigatoka.
While he remains in custody, it has emerged the man was arrested and charged in Ontario, Canada in July, 2012 for similar sexual abuse of children.
The Peel Regional Police in Ontario Canada said the alleged offences involved a boy aged 11 and spanned over a period of about three years.
In the Sigatoka Magistrate’s Court last Saturday, the man informed the magistrate that he had an appeal pending with the Fiji Immigration Department.
Questions sent to the Director of Immigration Amelia Komaisavai on Wednesday and yesterday on the legal status of the man remain unanswered.
The Fiji Times had questioned when did he enter Fiji, under what visa he entered Fiji and whether the Immigration Department knew he was charged with sex crime against children at the time of arrival in Fiji.
