20 Aug 2008

Fiji police suspend probe of threats against Australian high commissioner

3:56 pm on 20 August 2008

The police in Fiji say they have suspended their investigations into the death threats against the Australian High Commissioner James Batley because of a lack of technical equipment.

In May, two written death threats were delivered to the High Commission in Suva by taxi and one was sent by mail.

At the end of June, a third death threat was received in the mail.

A police spokeswoman, Ema Mua, says the police need more data and technical equipment before the investigations can resume.

"There is also another factor which has hindered our investigations, which is a fact that we had to work from one witness statement only. And that's really very hard because it could be anyone sending threats. The post office could send it to anywhere and no one would actually know."

Ema Mua says the police are working on how to get their investigations completed.

Security has been tightened at the high commission as a result of the threats, which the Fiji interim prime minster, Commodore Frank Bainiamarama, suggested might have originated from within the high commission.