Suva (Fiji) (AFP) - Fiji's former attorney-general Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum has been charged with abuse of office, police said Monday, in a fresh blow to ex-Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama who is due in court next week to face similar allegations.
Sayed-Khaiyum faces a single charge relating to a report lodged by the acting supervisor of elections in February, police said in a statement.
The former attorney general will remain in custody overnight before appearing at the Suva magistrate's court on Tuesday.
Sakeo Raikaci, chief of investigations and prosecutions, called for patience in the high-profile case of Sayed-Khaiyum, a key ally of Bainimarama who was voted out of office last year.
"The complex nature of the reports determines the course of the investigations which have no pre-determined timeline," Raikaci said in a statement.
The charge laid against Sayed-Khaiyum is the latest setback for Bainimarama, who led Fiji following a bloodless coup in 2006 until voters removed him from power in elections last December.
Bainimarama, 69, is due in court on May 11, having pleaded not guilty in March to a charge of abuse of office.
Bainimarama has vowed to fight allegations that he used his influence to have a police investigation terminated.It concerned staff members at Fiji's University of the South Pacific in July 2019.
