Fiji mutiny leader jailed for life

The leader of a bloody army mutiny in Fiji was jailed for life today. Captain Shane Steven stood expressionless when his sentence was announced.

Fourteen soldiers who followed him during the uprising two years ago got lesser prison sentences.

The 15 could have been executed by firing squad for staging the rebellion, in which eight soldiers were killed and 20 wounded at Fiji’s main army barracks in the capital, Suva.

The mutineers all said: “Thank you, sir,” after the decision was read out by the chief of the military court panel, which was made up of six military officers and a civilian judge.

Prosecutors said the revolt was an attempt to kill armed forces’ commander, Commodore Frank Bainimarama.

The mutiny was the first in the history of Fiji’s army.

It came after years of social and political turmoil in the South Pacific republic due to divisions between indigenous Fijians and ethnic Indians, who are descended from labourers imported by British colonisers in the 19th century.

Before the sentences were announced, Fiji’s current indigenous-dominated government signalled its plans to abolish the death penalty in the armed forces - a move that probably spared the mutineers' lives.