SUVA: The military regime has arrested Fiji Labour Party leader and former prime minister Mahendra Chaudhry for allegedly breaching public emergency regulations,
local media reports said Sunday.
Chaudhry was taken into custody with five other people on Friday and was expected to face court on Monday, state broadcaster Fiji Broadcasting Corporation and the Fijivillage news website reported.
Fijivillage said Chaudhry was detained for allegedly holding public meetings, which have been outlawed by the military regime.
It said that police had not publicly revealed the charges against the FLP leader but he was expected in court on Monday.
Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama, who seized power in a 2006 coup, imposed emergency regulations that ban public meetings when he abrogated the
constitution in April last year.
Chaudhry became Fiji's first ethnic Indian leader when elected prime minister in 1999 and was overthrown a year later in a coup led by
ethno-nationalist George Speight.
He is one of the main opposition voices in Fiji, where the media are heavily censored and political parties cannot issue statements seen as destabilising Bainimarama's regime.
In July, Chaudhry appeared in court on a raft of charges unrelated to his latest alleged offence, including money laundering and tax evasion. - Agence France-Presse/Pacific Media Watch
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Pacific Media Watch
