Fiji’s Police have suspended five officers with half pay over their “alleged inaction”, the country’s Director Public Prosecutions insists, “let victims of crime down.”
The five, Acting Police Commissioner Rusiate Tudravu said were involved in two cases that the Director of Public Prosecutions, Christopher Pryde said his office had to discontinue because of the failure of the officers responsible to properly carry out their duties.
They face possible removal from the force if found guilty.
ACP Tudravu said investigations will be headed by its Internal Affairs Department adding that the force “will not condone lazy officers…[and] has no place for officers who are not able to fully commit themselves to their oath of providing service to the Fijian people.”
In a statement yesterday, the Director of Public Prosecutions, Christopher Pryde, said one of the discontinued cases, because a police officer did not appear in court despite being summoned, is a 2018 home invasion incident in which three people were attacked with a cane knife and pinch bar. Pryde said, “officers who show a lack of respect for the court and its procedures by failing to attend not only let themselves down but let victims of crime down.”
The other case that the DPP filed a nolle prosequi was over a street mugging of an elderly woman at the Suva Bus Stand in September after police lost “critical evidence in the case and the Suva City Council deleted CCTV footage.”
