11 Nov 2013

Constitutional lawyer calls arrest of protestors 'juvenile'

4:46 pm on 11 November 2013

A constitutional lawyer is describing the arrest of a group of budget day protestors in Fiji as a juvenile attempt to curb peaceful protest.

The 14 women and young people had been having a meal near the Fiji Revenue Customs Authority building, wearing t-shirts calling on the government to make the budget public when they were arrested by police.

The police say the group was held for routine questioning and were all released by Friday evening.

Former Fiji human rights commissioner, Shaista Shameem, who now lives in Auckland, says police were within their rights as the group did not have a permit as required under the Public Order Decree.

But Dr Shameem says the police actions probably backfired.

"It just seems to me really juvenile to do something like that because I mean the whole idea about protest is that you could sit down and as far as these young people were concerned they were protesting peacefully and had the government just ignored them there would not have been such international drama now associated with this particular event."

Shaista Shameem says although the constitution allows for public assembly, protestors must still have a permit.