PORTVILA (Pacnews) — Australian conman Peter Foster, who was sentenced to two months imprisonment in Vanuatu after a saga in which he tried to escape by leaping from a window, has been allowed to check into a luxury hotel after being told his sentence has already been served.
Foster told the Sydney Morning Herald by phone that he had a “very civilized” lunch with the director of corrective services in Vanuatu, Michael Taun, and other senior officials, during which they agreed that his sentence had been served, under a provision for 50 percent of a term to be revoked where the sentence was less than 12 months.
Foster had been in jail for two weeks when he was sentenced on Friday, and even with remissions was not expected to be freed before the end of this month. No senior correctional services personnel could be contacted for an explanation as to why Foster was not behind bars.
Foster checked into Port Vila’s four-star Chantilly Hotel, where his room has 180-degree harbor views. Foster said his parole has been waived, so he could return to Australia and he was pleased to be allowed hotel accommodation until he left.
“But it was very hard”” he told The Herald. “I spent three weeks in solitary confinement in prison conditions not to Australian standards. It was extraordinarily hard.”
He said his lawyer had quoted Justice Michael Kirby’s view that even the “most unattractive citizens” deserved fair and humane treatment.
Foster said his chances of being extradited to Fiji — where he jumped bail — were less than zero. “I have more chance of becoming prime minister of Australia than being extradited to Fiji,” he said, before making a number of extraordinary claims, including that he secretly taped a meeting with the coup leader Frank Bainimarama, who he predicted would be assassinated within a month.
Foster received a two-month prison sentence and a A$1,400 fine for illegally entering Vanuatu after he jumped bail in Fiji on charges of having lied about his criminal past.