HONIARA (Pacnews) — Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare has branded claims that normal relations between his country and Australia can only resume with the extradition of fugitive lawyer Julian Moti as “ridiculous.”
An Australian lawyer, Moti has been nominated as attorney general of the Solomon Islands.
Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer wants Moti to return to Australia to face charges of raping a 13-year-old girl in Vanuatu in 1997.
Downer said the sooner the Solomon Islands handed Moti over, the sooner things could return to normal.
“I just cannot understand why Downer continues with this charade when he or the Australian director of public prosecutions has persistently failed to provide any valid reasons why we should hand Moti over,” Sogavare said in a statement issued through his Australia lawyers, Henshaw and Associates.
“There isn’t one iota of evidence to revisit a case that was unconditionally concluded in Vanuatu in 1999. The Australians have had the past eight months to come up with new evidence and they have failed miserably.”
Sogavare said the continued pursuit of Moti is “political persecution.”