Fiji coup leader George Speight escaped the death penalty...

Fiji coup leader George Speight escaped the death penalty when the South Pacific island nation's president commuted a death sentence for treason to life imprisonment.
Speight, who overthrew ethnically divided Fiji's first ethnic-Indian prime minister in 2000 in the name of indigenous rights, pleaded guilty to treason before the high court earlier in the day and burst into tears on hearing the death sentence.
But Fiji's Attorney General Qorinasi Bale told Reuters that President Ratu Josefa Iloilo, himself an indigenous Fijian, had signed a document later in the day commuting the sentence to life in prison.
Both prosecution and defence attorneys had urged the president to commute the sentence.
"It means the death penalty imposed by the court is no longer in existence," Bale said. "George Speight now faces a sentence of life imprisonment."
Speight, dressed in a traditional sulu skirt and jacket, caused surprise by pleading guilty to the charge when the long-delayed hearing began in the capital Suva, where rioters burned and looted shops and Indian homes during the coup.
"I am guilty your lordship," he told the judge.
Speight's lawyer immediately lodged a plea for clemency and read a statement from Speight urging his supporters to stay calm. "The judge's hands were tied and he had to pass the sentence that he did," Ron Cannon said, before the president's decision.
The city remained calm following the hearing.
Speight's lawyer told Reuters his client had entered a plea of guilty knowing he faced the death sentence so that 10 co-accused rebels could face a lesser charge. "He is loyal to the members of his group," Cannon added.
Ten of Speight's co-accused pleaded guilty to kidnap charges later in the day after the more serious treason charge against them was dropped. Two others have asked that their treason charge also be reduced to a lesser charge.