22 Apr 2008

SDL official to take court action after being stopped from leaving Fiji

8:43 pm on 22 April 2008

A senior official of Fiji's ousted ruling SDL party says he will take court action over being stopped from leaving the country at the weekend.

Peceli Kinivuwai was stopped from flying to Australia by an immigration officer based on a handwritten, unsigned letter.

The letter claimed to be from the police commissioner, but the police deny that the letter was written by them.

Mr Kinivuwai says the incident's violated his human rights.

"What I would like to say if it's not the commissioner of police then who did. And that person will be responsible, because I'm going to take legal action regarding the embarassement. I had to go through a lot of anguish in front of the other passengers and I will let the court decide on the future of this case."

Peceli Kinivuwai says he will also consider to ask for compensation.