The Magistrates Court in Suva has remanded a 33-year-old man, charged with multiple serious offences after he attempted to set fire to the Totogo Police Station, last month.
Sebastian Sipeli Kavaia Rakai appeared before Magistrate Krishnan Prasad charged with one count of Attempt to Commit Arson, two counts of Damaging Property and one count of Criminal Intimidation.
The matter has been transferred to the High Court as the Magistrates Court does not have the jurisdiction to hear Count One as it is an indictable offence under the Criminal Procedures Act of 2009.
It is alleged that Rakai on 21 September, in Suva, attempted to set fire to the Totogo Police Station building.
It is also alleged that on the same day, the accused willingly and unlawfully damaged the GSM Home Phone and a Police Landline telephone, both valued at $49 each.
It is also alleged that on the same day, at Suva in the Central Division without lawful excuse threatened five Police officers, by throwing a beer bottle filled with benzene and walked towards them with a hammer on both hands with the intent to cause alarm to the said officers.
Legal Aid Duty Solicitor Severo Ravu made an application that his client be remanded at the St Giles Hospital, as he is undertaking new rounds of medication.
Ravu told the Court that his client had already missed some rounds of medication while being in the custody of the Fiji Police Force.
However Magistrate Prasad ordered that the accused be held at the Suva Remand Centre, while medical personnel from the psychiatric hospital administer his medicines at the Remand Centre.
The matter has been adjourned to 30 October 2023 for mention.
