The following statement was issued by Julian Moti QC in New Delhi, India in August 2006 in response to a media inquiry from Chris Merritt (Legal Affairs Editor of The Australian).
At the time Mr Moti issued this statement neither he nor the Solomon Islands Government were aware that a warrant for his arrest had been secretly issued in breach of Queensland’s Justices Act, as Mr Moti QC was nowhere within the issuing magistrate’s jurisdiction or elsewhere in Australia at that time, but was physically situated in New Delhi, India. The AFP, Commonwealth Department of Public Prosecutions, Commonwealth Attorney General’s Department and everyone else (including the Australian media) knew exactly where Mr Moti QC was located. A simple “Google” search would have yielded the details of his exact whereabouts. He was teaching at the Centre for the Study of Law and Governance at Jawaharlal Nehru University where he had been appointed Visiting Professorial Fellow since 2004.
Chris Merritt’s article in The Australian was entitled “Blast Against Homeland” and, (with that caption) predictably, didn’t quote what Mr Moti QC wrote.
The accompanying media statement issued by Mr Moti QC and provided to Chris Merritt of The Australian was published verbatim in the Solomon Star in late August 2006 and tendered as an exhibit in legal proceedings in the National Court of Justice of Papua New Guinea, the High Court of Solomon Islands and the Supreme Court of Queensland.
This issue is of significance for two reasons; firstly it provides another’s perspective on the issues I have been raising regarding corruption within the AFP on Blak and Black over the last few months; secondly, it raises concerns about the way in which Australia apparently treated with open contempt the Solomon Islands judicial officer, the way in which Australia is leading countries such as Fiji under the “aegis” of RAMSI, to provide near South Pacific neighbours with “capacity building” in the law and justice area.
What does the ‘Intervention’ in the Northern Territory and RAMSI in the South pacific tell the rest of the world about the attitudes of ‘white’ Australians to our non-European neighbours? Has anyone considered the implications for Australia if the rest of the world decides that the Deputy Sheriff is toting a gun too big for his britches?
For the record, Commonwealth prosecutor Glen Rice SC, recently presented a fresh indictment in the Supreme Court in Brisbane charging Mr Moti QC with seven counts of engaging in sexual intercourse with a person under the age of 16.
The charges related to the alleged rape of a 13-year-old girl in Noumea and Vanuatu in 1997.
Mr Moti SC was first arrested and charged with the alleged offences at Brisbane International Airport in December 2007.
The charges were thrown out in December 2009, but the case was recently revived with a Queensland Court of Appeal ruling that the stay was made in error.
Mr Rice told the court it was likely the trial, which will probably be heard in the first half of 2012, will run for four weeks.
Mr Moti’s 2006 statement is included with the permission of its author:
MEDIA RELEASE
Moti attacks racist crusade
“I am the first non-white Australian to be approached for nomination as Attorney General of Solomon Islands. If I am offered this position by Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare’s Government, it would be a great honour and recognition for the fifteen years of legal work that I have carried out to promote indigenous interests in Solomon Islands. I am not surprised by the vicious attack on myself by a small white minority who act as proxies for foreign interests. I will continue to criticize Australia’s derogatory image of Solomon Islanders as ‘naïve, primitive and easily-manipulated peoples.’ I will continue to condemn the common perception of Australia’s re-defined role and responsibility in civilizing the ‘fuzzy-wuzzie’ natives of Melanesia. I will dare to be different in my professional outlook , even if this displeases those who are accustomed to having their own way with a compliant, generally ineffective and otherwise inarticulate outfit.”
“I have had to pay the ultimate price for advocating causes that threaten the white supremacist and colonial agenda in Melanesia by resisting all kinds of attacks on my personal fame and character. All the accusations made against me over the years emanate ultimately from a few white lawyers and their puppets. Fortunately, these morally bankrupt castaways are outnumbered by and unrepresentative of the rest of the world’s peoples of all complexions and creeds.”
“My Indian heritage and Roman Catholic upbringing have nurtured my dismissive response to indignity. I find solace in prayer for the salvation of the unenlightened. There is no reason why the past needs to be dredged up again and again by my opponents when litigation was finally and conclusively determined to absolve me of any culpability and liability. It must be the plight of my colour that I be presumed shady despite my triumph in those ordeals.”
“I was legally represented in Vanuatu by Ian Barker QC (who was the President of the Law Council of Australia and New South Wales Bar Association at the time) and Dr David Chaikin (an internationally-renowned criminal lawyer) in defending criminal charges that didn’t even stack up to a prima facie case on the evidence despite the perseverance of my white prosecutors. That finding was reaffirmed subsequently by both Vanuatu’s Melanesian Public Prosecutor and the Chief Justice of Supreme Court of Vanuatu. John Purnell SC (who was then also executive member of the Law Council of Australia and President of the Australian Capital Territory Bar Association) defended me in the civil case instigated by another white lawyer. The judicial verdict in that case is recorded in my favour. All claims and counterclaims of the parties were discontinued. All the muck-raking that continues to be peddled as investigative journalism is purely conjecture, contemptuous and outrageous.”
“The Solomon Islands Bar Association has dogmatically insisted that the Attorney General be chosen in defiance of the constitutional text and established conventions both in the Solomon Islands and elsewhere. This is plainly indefensible. How can those who are learned in the law parade their ignorance of the fact that the white Australian Solicitor General is also intimately involved in the workings of Cabinet and Parliament and privy to state secrets whenever he assumes the role of Acting Attorney General?”
“I question the journalistic integrity of ‘Solomon Star’ in attributing certain disparaging comments about me which were allegedly made by my deceased friend, David Campbell when he was President of the Solomon Islands Bar Association. David Campbell is dead and so cannot challenge these spurious comments. Shortly before he died though, David told me how much he regretted becoming a stooge for vested white interests which launched a campaign to vilify me.”
“I accuse the Solomon Islands Bar Association of partisanship in neglecting to press for the investigation of the former white Australian Director of Public Prosecutions. The DPP allegedly colluded with the presiding magistrate to secure the refusal of bail to the two parliamentarians who are currently locked up in Rove Prison. It is outrageous that this scandalous matter has been swept under the carpet. The current Attorney General has played a significant role in dissuading the Governor General from initiating an independent inquiry into the alleged misbehaviour of the DPP. Why was the rule of law not followed on that occasion? Is what’s good for the goose not good for the gander? Whose interest is it to hide the truth?”
“Both Honourable Charles Dausabea MP and Honourable Nelson Ne’e MP as well as Pacific Lawyers will confirm my utter disgust with what we discovered. I do not accept that I should keep silent about this matter merely to ensure the continuity of Australian financial and logistical support for the law and justice sector in Solomon Islands. I protested against this cover up by immediately withdrawing as Counsel for both accused parliamentarians, resigning as Consultant Counsel to my former law firm and have never stepped in Pacific Lawyers’ office ever since. I resent any aspersions being cast on my professional character and conduct because of my refusal to be involved in a charade that would be visited with dire consequences even in Australia.”
Julian R Moti QC
Visiting Professorial Fellow, Centre for the Study of Law and Governance, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India; Visiting Professor, Gujarat National Law University, Gandhinagar, Gujarat, India; Adjunct Professor, Faculty of Law, Bond University, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia