The hearing of an application by New Zealand millionaire businessman Ballu Khan for a permanent stay in his case of alleged conspiracy to kill senior Fiji politicians has taken a new twist, with the judge demanding the state produce more evidence.
And unless the state produces written records of reports written by undercover military agents or a satisfactory explanation why they can't, the case against Khan and nine others may be thrown out.
The stay application by the New Zealand businessman and his co-accused resumed yesterday It alleges abuse of processes by the state and entrapment by military witnesses.
Khan and his nine co-accused have applied to Justice Andrew Bruce in the High Court at Suva to throw out the conspiracy charges against them.
They are charged with conspiring to kill Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama and two senior members of his regime.
Lawyer Devanesh Sharma, representing former land force Commander Jone Baledrokadroka, said there was insufficient and inconsistent evidence against his client.
Referring to a statement by a Fiji military spy, Corporal Peniasi Kuli, Mr Sharma said Cpl Kuli did not identify a specific time or date of the alleged meetings.
Mr Sharma said without that information, his client could not cross-check for an alibi.
Ratu Inoke Takiveikata's lawyer, Akuila Naco, told Justice Bruce that state prosecutors should have got their act together by now and that disclosures from the state had not been forthcoming.
Justice Bruce has given the state until September 15 to give him a satisfactory explanation for the absence of written records from the undercover agents.
Khan's New Zealand lawyer, Peter Williams QC, told NZPA tonight that, in statements the defence had been given, the undercover people had said they had made written reports to their superiors.
"In what we call the discovery or disclosure to us there were no such documents and the judge has made an order that the state make further inquiries and give a satisfactory explanation for their absence," Mr Williams said.
"The judge has said he's going to strike the case out unless they give a satisfactory explanation."
Khan is a Fijian businessman who holds New Zealand citizenship, and trained as a chartered accountant to work as an investigator for New Zealand's Inland Revenue Department.
His company, Tui Management Services, is the joint owner with the Vanua Development Corporation, a commercial wing of the Native Land Trust Board (NLTB) which administers indigenous land holdings throughout Fiji.
