Solomons MP begins jail sentence
Updated
RAProminent Solomon Islands Member of parliament Charles Dausabea has begun a jail sentence in Honiara. The East Honiara M-P last Friday lost a High Court Appeal against an earlier sentence by the Magistrates Court. He has now effectively lost his parliamentary seat.
Presenter: Geraldine Coutts
Speaker: Sam Seke, journalist
COUTTS: Joining me in the studio now is colleague Sam Seke; Sam Charles Dausabea has lost a case in the High Court?
SEKE: Yeah that's the news that we heard following last Friday when the decision was supposed to have been made by the High Court yes, and he's as we speak in jail.
COUTTS: In Rove prison?
SEKE: That's right.
COUTTS: Now can you give us a bit of a background to this particular case, it's misappropriation of funds?
SEKE: It was misappropriation of funds. It was the sum of 40-thousand Solomon Islands dollars that was supposed to be paid to a church group, a seven-day Adventist church group in his constituency, East Honiara constituency. But apparently as the story goes the church did not want to have anything to do with the money, so he instead put it in his own bank account.
COUTTS: And do we know where the money came from initially?
SEKE: It is from the constituency development fund.
COUTTS: Alright so this is not the end for Mr Dausabea at the moment?
SEKE: No, he's still got the Solomon Islands Court of Appeal if he wanted to challenge that, the decision.
COUTTS: Mr Charles Dausabea for people who don't know is an MP. He was named during the riots in Honiara but was cleared of all of that. So what kind of person is he?
SEKE: He's quite a prominent member of parliament as far as Solomon Islands is concerned. He's been around for quite a while, he's been a member of, well a cabinet minister in several past governments and he is also now the Secretary General of the Solomon Islands National Olympic Committee, which is supposed actually to go with the Solomon Islands team to Beijing in a few weeks time.
COUTTS: Will if the charges stick according to Solomon Islands constitution he will not be allowed to continue as an MP.
SEKE: That's right, he will lose that position as a member of parliament.
