FIJI – A human rights lawyer in Fiji says a year after Lautoka businessman Rajneel Singh was attacked, allegedly by police, no progress has been made in getting him justice.

The businessman said he was beaten up and left for dead in Sigatoka on November 20, 2015, after reporting a plot he believed he had uncovered to overthrow the government.

He was attacked again two months ago in his home.

His lawyer Aman Ravindra-Singh said the police have done little to solve what he says were attempted murders.

“To date there has been no breakthrough in either of the attacks on Rajneel. The first attack was very brutal. He was tortured by members of the security forces, picked up outside Ba Police Station, taken in a police vehicle into the interior of Viti Levu, very brutally tortured and then taken and left for dead in Sigatoka.

“The second attack which took place in his own home on Tuesday, August 30, this year, was an attempted murder whereby the persons who attacked him had put a plastic bag around his head and fastened it with industrial tape and left him to suffocate and die, literally.

“There is no accountability. We maintain that there is a cover up within the police force. If you look at all the instances of torture in the last couple of years, that is the norm.

“That’s how police are able to tone down the public outcry and emotions and all they will say is ‘investigations are continuing’.”

“I have no confidence in the investigation. It lacks transparency. There is no accountability,” Ravindra-Singh said.

Ravindra-Singh said the police do not even have the courtesy to update his client on what they’re doing about his case.

Ravindra-Singh said the attacks on his client are among several cases which prove state-sponsored torture is still going on in Fiji.”

Fiji Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama last week at a workshop on implementing the UN Convention Against Torture admitted there were isolated acts of torture within the disciplined forces in Fiji.

Ravindra-Singh said this was a huge breakthrough.

“There has been complete denial of torture taking place in Fiji. But the prime minister saying that the incidence of torture in Fiji are isolated is completely wrong. The torture which takes place in Fiji is state-sponsored torture.

“It’s simple. If you look back just recently when a torture video had been leaked in whichmilitary and police personnel were torturing at least three escaped prisoners, we will all recall that Bainimarama went out of his way and said publicly that, ‘I stand by my men’. He also maintained that this is the treatment that will be dished out to criminals.

“I’ll give you a better example. In 2011, the prime minister directly ordered the torture of trade unionist, Felix Anthony. Again despite the complaints to police no one has been apprehended.

“No one has been questioned, no one has been charged and no one has been brought before the courts of law and we have even identified the persons in Felix Anthony’s statement. All the names of the persons are there. Five years later investigations are still continuing.”

In 2012, the interim Fiji government dismissed Anthony’s claims saying he had no evidence, but police later said they were investigating.

With regard to the Singh inuiry, Fiji police told RNZI this week the ‘investigation is ongoing’. - RNZI