AUCKLAND (Pacific Media Watch / Fiji Times / Coupfourpointfive): Police in Fiji are seeking information from members of the public to identify the victims of a video that has gone viral on Facebook.
The video was of a man and woman being beaten up by two people.
Police information officer Ana Naisoro confirmed the police were aware of the video.
"We are asking people to come forward and help us identify the people in the video," Naisoro told the Fiji Times.
The 4.36 minute video was posted late last month. It showed a man and a woman entering a house and beating up another man and woman.
A stick was also used to beat the victims.
No report has been lodged with police on the matter.
Video removed?
According to the anti-regime website Coupfourpointfive, the video has likely been removed “in recent weeks”.
Pacific Media Watch has been unable to track down the video online.
The website, run by anonymous activists opposed to the Fiji regime, tied the police investigation of the recent video to another video published earlier this year that showed what was believed to be “corrections officers, police and security forces” beating an escaped prisoner and stripping him of his clothes.
“We don't condone the violence but are intrigued the Fiji police is keen to find the people involved in a video showing a man and his girlfriend being beaten, considering its failure to follow up on the thrashing and torture of escaped prisoner, Iowane Benedito, and another man in March this year,” the website wrote.
Coupfourpointfive alleged the police had a reason to view the recent video differently.
“They [the police] seem to have one rule for themselves and regime hierarchy and another for ordinary folk of Fiji.”
Pacific Media Watch reported extensively on the Facebook video that went viral earlier this year showing the beating of escaped prisoner Iowane Benedito, and the subsequent debate in media throughout the region.
Ex-detective calls on Fiji police to speed up torture investigation
Police confirm ‘security personnel’ responsible for brutal beating
‘I’ll stand by my men,’ regime leader says over torture video
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 New Zealand Licence.
Daniel Drageset
