31 Mar 2005

New police investigation into triad style killings in Fiji two years ago

8:12 pm on 31 March 2005

Fiji police are to re-open their investigations into the execution-style killings of three Chinese nationals and a Fijian employee in a Lami fish factory two years ago.

The Fiji Sun reports that this follows the appointment of an Australian Criminal Investigation Department advisor and an Australian prosecutor to revisit the murder scene just outside Suva and put together vital evidence.

The police commissioner, Andrew Hughes, is quoted as saying crime investigator John Gillespie from Western Australia and prosecution lawyer Daryl Carlson have been given the special assignment after securing funding from AUSAid.

The bodies of the four men were not discovered for three days because security guards in nearby factories did not hear any gunfire although the men had been shot dead.

Police investigations revealed that the men were killed in a Chinese Triad style execution which shocked the Fiji community.

Mr Hughes says lack of much needed resources like DNA testing and expertise had hindered earlier investigations.