Home Affairs Minister Joketani Cokanasiga said at Queen...

Home Affairs Minister Joketani Cokanasiga said at Queen Victoria School that government will remove the death penalty from the Military Act, before reviewing the cadet passing out parade. "We will revoke the death penalty in the review of the Republic of Fiji Military Forces Act now under way," Mr Cokanasiga said.
The RFMF Act is undergoing a major review since 1994. Mr Cokanasiga said the new proposal "is intended to have a comprehensive legislation for the RFMF, rather than referring to the United Kingdom legislation, instructions and manuals".
Under the RFMF Act, those convicted of mutiny face a mandatory death sentence because that is contained in the UK act adopted in Fiji. Currently, 16 members of the former Counter-Revolutionary Warfare [CRW] Unit are charged with mutiny.
Under the current legislation, they face a firing squad if found guilty. However, there is a provision in the RFMF Act, under Section 23, which gives the president the power to remit or commute that sentence to life in jail. Legal counsel for some of the CRW soldiers Kelemedi Bulewa in earlier interview said that because death penalty had be removed from Fiji's Penal Code, it was not applicable to the CRW soldiers now on mutiny charge.
He said that if his clients were proven guilty and faced death penalty or firing squad, they should be flown over to the United Kingdom for the death sentence to be carried out.