Fiji rebel leader demands release

Mr Speight has been remanded in custody since 26 July

Lawyers for the Fijian coup leader George Speight have called for treason charges against him to be dropped on the grounds that the military promised him immunity from prosecution.

Mr Speight and a gang of nationalist rebels deposed the democratic government of Mahendra Chaudhry in May, and held him and much of his cabinet hostage for 56 days.

The immunity provision was part of an agreement which finally brought the hostage crisis to an end in July, but the army says Mr Speight failed to carry the accord out in full.

The chief magistrate hearing the case in the capital, Suva, Salesi Temo, has adjourned it until 4 September, when he is expected to give a final decision on whether a treason trial can go ahead.

Further arguments

Mr Temo said he would consider further submissions from both sides before deciding whether the immunity offer was valid.

Mr Chaudhry has yet to get his job back

Mr Speight, under his Fijian name of Ilikini Naitini, and 16 associates are charged with treason for using force to overthrow the country's legitimate government.

Treason is an offence which carries the death penalty in Fiji, although it has not been carried out since independence from Britain in 1970.

Mr Speight's lawyers argued that the charges were an abuse of power by the authorities because the amnesty still stood, and they called for the rebels' release from prison.

However the military authorities argued that the terms of the immunity deal were breached by the rebels' failure to hand back all the weapons stolen from the army and used in the uprising.

Prison island

The military arrested Mr Speight on 26 July along with hundreds of supporters, after he repeatedly frustrated efforts to form a new government.

The 17 defendants, who are being detailed on the prison island of Nakulau, were brought to Suva for the brief hearing and then remanded in custody again.

Mr Speight, dressed in a tie and traditional Fijian skirt, smiled and waved to a small group of supporters outside the court.

The country's constitutional crisis began on 19 May, when he and other gunmen stormed the parliament and detained Mr Chaudhry's government.

Indigenous rights

The rebels claimed they were acting in defence of indigenous rights which they said had been undermined by Mr Chaudhry, the country's first ethnic Indian prime minister.

Ethnic Indians make up nearly half of Fiji's population.

In a separate development, the authorities confirmed that the police chief, Isikia Savua, is to face a judicial inquiry into allegations of complicity in the coup.