A group of anti-government protestors known as the Nauru 19 has reportedly been found guilty in a retrial, four and half years after they were first charged with rioting and disturbing the legislature.
A bid by the defendants to have the Government pay for their legal representation was also rejected by the retrial judge Daniel Fatiaki, who said Nauru had no laws giving people the right to be defended in court.
Justice Muecke said successive governments have gone out of their way to ensure the group did not have appropriate legal representation, even casting doubt on the purpose of the trial he oversaw last year. "The acquittal is probably just to indicate that they've had a fair trial which is a shameful thing for me to say, but that's how I feel," he said.Australia has spent billions of dollars funding the offshore immigration detention centre on Nauru."They should take some responsibility for ensuring the rule of law operates in a country which [the Australian Government] funds to such a huge extent," he told the ABC last month.
Alexander Hawke, Minister for International Development and the Pacific, said the issue has been raised diplomatically by the Australian government in the past, but their"number one objective" is to"respect the sovereignty of all countries in the Pacific". "It's a matter for the Nauru government to make their decision through their legal framework," Mr Hawke said.
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