9 Aug 2002

Fiji police says no prominent people involved in coup

4:19 pm on 9 August 2002

Police investigations in Fiji have failed to find any evidence of planners or financial backers of the May 2000 coup other than the 14 people already charged or convicted.

The assistant commissioner of police, Moses Driver, has told Radio FM-96 that the public could have got the full story behind the coup if George Speight had not pleaded guilty and his trial had gone ahead.

Mr Driver says those held on Nukulau and some military officers detained at the army camp, had been meeting and plotting before May the 19th, 2000.

But, he says, no prominent people found around parliament played any role in the insurrection.

Meanwhile, allegations that some Indo-Fijian businessmen may have been involved in the coup have also been watered down.

Mr Driver says the coup was a totally indigenous Fijian event.

He says they do not expect to charge anyone else with treason unless someone speaks out.