23 Dec 2006

Australia's Federal Police Commissioner hopes Julian Moti will be brought before courts

10:44 am on 23 December 2006

The Australian Federal Police commissioner, Mick Keelty, says he hopes fugitive lawyer Julian Moti will soon be brought before the courts.

Mr Moti, an Australian lawyer appointed but later suspended as the Solomon Islands attorney-general, is wanted by the AFP for alleged child sex offences dismissed by a court in Vanuatu in 1997.

Canberra has consistently rejected offers from the Solomons to return Mr Moti to Australia because of attached conditions.

The Solomons prime minister, Manasseh Sogavare, has described the Australian case against Mr Moti as nonsense.

He says Mr Moti travelled in and out of Australia for ten years and Australia raised his case only when he was appointed to the post of attorney general.