The Court of Appeal has approved the application to abandon the appeal against former SODELPA MP Adi Litia Qionibaravi in relation to a High Court ruling in 2023.
The matter was called before Judge Justice Prematilaka.
The appellant with others was charged by the Fiji Independent Commission Against Corruption on falsifying information to a public servant contrary to section 201(a) of the Crimes Act and obtaining financial advantage contrary to section 326(1) of the Crimes Act.
The Court of Appeal ruled that the High Court had no jurisdiction to entertain and hear the appellant’s said appeal and dismissed the same.
It was also heard that FICAC had entered nolle prosequi in the High Court upon receiving an independent medical assessment by a panel of doctors that the appellant was unfit to stand trial and accordingly, the appellant had been discharged from all proceedings by the High Court, in 2023.
“On the material available, I am satisfied that the appellant still wished to abandon her appeal, she was doing so voluntarily having received legal advice from her counsel and the reason for the abandonment is that there are no proceedings pending against her any longer in the High Court and the appeal has become futile, and she has understood that the consequences of the abandonment would be that if the application is allowed her appeal would be deemed dismissed, and she cannot once again canvass the said impugned ruling of the high court.”
“I am also mindful that the appellant’s appeal has in any event become frivolous in view of the nolle prosequi entered by FICAC in the High Court and is liable to be dismissed in terms of section 35(2) of the Court of Appeal Act,” the judge ruled.
