13 Oct 2008

Fiji's SDL to meet lawyer over last week's coup approval verdict

2:41 pm on 13 October 2008

The SDL party of Fiji's ousted Prime Minister, Laisenia Qarase, will meet its lawyer this week to discuss options on appealing last week's court decision.

The controversial ruling dismissed Mr Qarase's challenge of the President's powers, finding the coup valid and granting immunity to the military leaders.

SDL's National Director, Peceli Kinivuwai, says the party has lost this battle, but not the war.

"I think it is more to do with our solicitor's view of the ruling and what we as party executives view, our opinions towards the ruling, because we feel that there's a lot of grey areas, as far as the ruling's concerned, and we are going to straighten that up and see what's our next course of action as far as the lawyer's advice is concerned."

Peceli Kinivuwai says at this point, the SDL party will not be engaging with the interim regime, and won't be working with the National Council for Building a Better Fiji.