18 Mar 2015

Fiji bans Lal indefinitely

5:56 pm on 18 March 2015

The Fiji government says a former Fiji citizen and now Australian academic, Brij Lal, will remain banned from Fiji indefinitely.

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Photo: AFP

The defence minister Timoci Natuva confirmed that the 2009 decision to remove Professor Lal from Fiji still stands.

He left Fiji after being detained by the military over criticism of the interim regime's decision to expel Australian and New Zealand diplomats.

At the time, the military chief of staff, Colonel Aziz Mohammed, said Professor Lal was detained and questioned because he had breached public emergency regulations.

The director of immigration, Major Nemani Vuniwaqa, confirmed that he had left Fiji but said he was he was not expelled as claimed by him.

Professor Lal was one of the authors of the 1997 constuitution which the military regime abrogated in 2009 when the court of appeal ruled that the post-coup administration was illegal.