PORT VILLA (Pacnews) — Vanuatu is considering deporting serial conman Peter Foster to freedom in Australia when he faces court in Port Vila, despite his being wanted in two other Pacific nations, reports The Australian.
Foster — who was smuggled into Vanuatu — was due in court to face immigration charges for arriving here without documentation after fleeing house arrest in Fiji.
Prosecutors’ favored option is to deport the notorious conman as soon as practicable.
“That’s the option we’re looking at,” a senior Vanuatu official said.
Vanuatu state prosecutor Alfred Bice told Pacific News that if Foster were found guilty, the Vanuatu government would push for his deportation to Australia and not Fiji.
If Foster is deported, the Australian citizen would be sent home, possibly within days.
Despite being a wanted man in Fiji and the Federated States of Micronesia, Foster would be a free man if he arrived back in Australia where there are no outstanding warrants for his arrest.
Fiji wanted Foster to face immigration charges for allegedly forging a Queensland police service criminal record check.
The Federated States of Micronesia is investigating Foster’s involvement in a loan scam but has not applied to Vanuatu for extradition.
Fiji — where the nation’s military leader Frank Bainimarama seized power in a coup on Dec. 5 — has not applied for extradition at this stage either.
Shortly before he disappeared, Foster worked with the Fijian military in a sting operation to discredit the government of then-Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase.