Rebel Indicted on Criminal Charges in Fiji

Rebel leader George Speight has been charged with a series of criminal offenses and is being investigated for treason, police said Tuesday.

The charges mean Speight is likely to be brought from an island prison to face a court in Suva, the capital, although a date for a hearing has not been set.

Police official Moses Driver said Speight and several key supporters had been charged with offenses under emergency decrees in place in Fiji.

The charges include unlawful assembly at Fiji’s Parliament House, where Speight’s group held deposed Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry hostage for eight weeks, and at a school where they gathered after Chaudhry’s release last month.

They were also charged with consorting with people in possession of firearms and illegal burial of a body at Parliament House. Speight’s group buried one of its supporters who died after a brief gun battle with the military July 4.

Driver said the military, police and prosecutors were still examining possible treason charges against Speight for storming Parliament on May 19 and taking Chaudhry, Fiji’s first ethnic Indian leader, and most of his Cabinet hostage in the name of indigenous Fijian rights.