YAREN – A former Nauru solicitor-general says a police investigation into alleged kickbacks from an Australian phosphate company to Nauru’s president and justice minister was well advanced at the time of police commissioner Richard Britten’s sacking in July 2013.

Steven Bliim, an Australian barrister, served as Nauru’s solicitor-general from December 2012 until his resignation in January 2014.

He told the ABC that Nauru police, justice and parliamentary officials were confirming with US authorities the authenticity of emails showing funds provided by Australian miner Getax to then-opposition MPs were to be used during the 2010 election campaign to force a change of government.

The emails, revealed in a report aired on the ABC on Monday, also suggested Getax was attempting to take control of the island’s phosphate business.

“I became aware of them in conjunction with the commissioner of police, Richard Britten, and the parliamentary counsel, Katy Le Roy, and my involvement was in drafting the request for mutual assistance to the US authorities in order to get confirmation from Hotmail of the authenticity of the emails that the police had,” he said.

“After that request was made I heard nothing further about it.

“But it was only a matter of weeks that the Nauru Regional Processing Centre riot occurred and Richard was stood down and eventually left the island.

“I think that the departure of Richard Britten may well have been connected with the Getax matter.”

Britten is not permitted to speak on the matter due to his ongoing employment with the Australian Federal Police.

Parliamentary counsel Katy Le Roy, the wife of Nauru opposition MP Roland Khun, who has not been able to take his seat in parliament for more than a year, has also had her visa revoked.

Bliim told Fairfax Media at the time of his resignation that he quit in direct response to the termination of resident magistrate Peter Law’s visa and the exile of chief justice Geoffrey Eames.

He said in February 2014 he briefed staff at Australia’s Attorney-General’s Department in Canberra about his concerns over the state of the judiciary in Nauru.

“I gave a briefing to members of the Attorney-General’s Department, I was invited at Canberra to talk to some of the senior solicitors in that department,” Bliim said.

After the briefing, which did not include detail about the emails, Bliim said he had heard nothing more from Canberra.

“The reaction of the politicians at the time was dismissive, indicating that it was purely an internal Nauruan affair, which seemed at odds with the sort of reaction that was taken, for instance, when the Fiji coups occurred,” he said.

“This wasn’t as overt as what happened in Fiji, but the effect of it has been very similar where the country has failed to abide by its own laws and it’s effectively taken steps to make itself not accountable.”

Nauru’s government has demanded an apology from the ABC over the report into alleged corruption linking phosphate company Getax to Nauru’s president Baron Waqa and justice minister David Adeang.

Adeang has called for an immediate investigation into what he calls a “disgusting and unethical report”, and also into the relationship between the ABC journalists who produced it and the Nauru opposition.

Bliim says the expulsion of five Nauru MPs from parliament for speaking to foreign media “very much seems to be an exercise in keeping the lid on dissent on the island”.

“That relates very much to recent attempts to cut access to Facebook,” he said.

“Many have taken that to be aimed at the asylum seekers and refugees, but I think it’s more aimed at the locals being kept under control.”

In mid-May, Adeang presented to parliament a bill which prohibited language “that is threatening, abusive or insulting in nature and has the intention to stir up racial or religious hatred”.