Members of the disbanded Counter Revolutionary Warfare...

Members of the disbanded Counter Revolutionary Warfare [CRW] unit charged with mutiny and appearing before a military court martial will face the death penalty if found guilty, the Fiji Military Forces legal counsel Lt-Col Mohammed Aziz confirmed.
However, this was strongly disputed by defence counsel Kelemedi Bulewa, who said that the CRW members were covered by the amendment to the Penal Code removing the death penalty passed by the House of Representatives on 25 February.
Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase, in his contribution to the debate in the House, said his government wanted to remove the death penalty from all Fiji laws.
Bulewa said the constitution was the supreme law of the country and superseded any other law in the country, including military law.
But Aziz maintained that under the Manual of Military Law [MML] the soldiers would still face the death sentence if found guilty. He said the soldiers were not charged under the Penal Code, but under the MML, which comes under Cap 81 of the RFMF [Republic of Fiji Military Forces] Act.
If Aziz's interpretation is correct, the 15 soldiers will face the firing squad.
Bulewa said the death penalty was included in the MML by the British during colonial rule, and if the soldiers were given death penalty, they had to be taken to Britain because "here in Fiji this cruel penalty no longer exists".
The soldiers under court martial had made a failed attempt to take over the Queen Elizabeth Barracks on 2 November, 2000.