27 Oct 2016

FIji police boss attends court as 'learning platform'

12:41 pm on 27 October 2016

Fiji's police commissioner Brigadier General Sitiveni Qiliho says he chose to attend the Lautoka High Court trial of police officers accused of rape as a learning platform to deal with police brutality cases.

Fiji's Police Commissioner, Sitiveni Qiliho. April 2016.

Fiji's Police Commissioner, Sitiveni Qiliho. Photo: Fiji PM's YouTube channel.

He told the Fiji Sun that this would assist him on what police could do better in future as the force is still investigating last week's roadside police beating of four wanted men.

In Lautoka, eight policemen and a military officer, who was the prime minister Frank Bainimarama's body guard, are being tried for raping Vilikesa Soko in police custody.

He later died of his injuries.

Several of the accused were reinstated as police officers by Brigadier General Qiliho nearly a year ago but he suspended them again on full pay in February after complaints by the Director of Public Prosecutions.

The Lautoka trial is continuing.

Meanwhile in Suva, the trial has opened of a former police officer accused of raping a 15-year-old girl last year.

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