Fiji coup leader defiant in court

Prosecutors today accused 13 men charged with treason after an armed coup of trying to set up a ‘‘government at gunpoint’’ in Fiji.

The accusation came as prosecutors outlined their case against George Speight and 12 alleged co-conspirators at a hearing to decide whether they should be tried for treason. The men could be sentenced to death if convicted.

Entering the gray stone Supreme Court building in Suva, the capital, Speight told reporters he had no regrets about leading the coup on May 19, 2000, which toppled Fiji’s democratically elected government and sent the country into an economic tailspin.

Asked if he was nervous ahead of the hearing, Speight smiled and replied: ‘‘No, not at all. Why should I be? I would say the nervousness is on the other side.’’

Wearing his trademark sulu, a traditional Fijian skirt, with a double-breasted jacket, Speight did not speak throughout the morning’s hearings, but his lawyer Rabo Matabalavu sprung a surprise by announcing Speight wanted a new lawyer forcing a one-week adjournment in the case, which is expected to last months.

Before Chief Magistrate Salesi Temo adjourned the proceedings, prosecutor Gerard McCoy said he would call witnesses including deposed prime minister Mahendra Chaudhry and the Fijian president forced to step down after the coup, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, to testify.

McCoy accused Speight and others of plotting for weeks to overthrow the government, blow up banks and distribute firebombs to local Fijians who rioted after the coup. The banks were not blown up, but stores and restaurants owned by ethnic Indians in the capital, Suva, were looted and torched.

The prosecution alleges that Speight, identified in court papers by his Fijian name Ilikimi Naitini, of inciting the murder of a police officer shot dead nine days after the coup.

Speight claims he launched the coup on behalf of indigenous Fijians, who make up 51% of the Pacific nation’s 840,000 people, to curtail the economic and political power of ethnic Indians, a powerful minority of 44%t.

But McCoy said he had failed.

‘‘George Speight and the other traitors have ended up hurting the very people they purport to represent,’’ he told the court. ‘‘A new level of abject poverty has descended over so many people.’’

Fiji’s lucrative tourist and sugar industries collapsed after the coup and are only just starting to recover.

Security was light today with unarmed police officers guarding the court building. Speight and the other defendants were allowed to mingle and chat with friends and family during a brief break in the case.

Speight and his fellow suspects arrived earlier on a navy patrol boat from the island in Suva lagoon that has been transformed into a temporary prison to hold them.

Prosecutors are expected to present hours of video tapes taken at media conferences Speight gave virtually every day that he and scores of rebels spent occupying parliament during a 56-day standoff.

Speight’s defence will likely concentrate on immunity guarantees given the rebels in return for their peaceful surrender and release of the hostages.

The military says the guarantee is no longer binding because Speight and his men did not turn in all their weapons as agreed.