John and Yvette Nikolic’s emotional goodbye during raid
AS YVETTE Nikolic makes her first appearance in court, dramatic details have been revealed about the emotional goodbye she shared with her husband John as their luxury yacht was raided, before he collapsed from consuming a drug cocktail.
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YVETTE Nikolic has appeared in Latouka’s High Court for a mention hearing, and will apply for bail on drug charges.
The wife of Australian horse trainer John Nikolic is facing drug possession and importation allegations, following the raid by Fiji authorities on the yacht Shenanigans in Denarau Marina nearly a fortnight ago.
Details have since emerged the couple shared an emotional goodbye during the raid, before Mr Nikolic collapsed from a drug cocktail and Ms Nikolic was whisked away by police.
Wearing a white shirt and jeans, Ms Nikolic appeared calm and collected, occasionally exchanging glances and smiles with her brothers-in-law Danny and Tom Nikolic, and mother in-law Karen, across the court room.
Representing Ms Nikolic, Mr Wasu Pillay said he was putting DPP prosecutor Semi Babitu on notice that bail would be sought on behalf of his client.
MORE: Crew member on Nikolics’ drug yacht says he “dodged a bullet”
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Ms Nikolic applied to have personal items from a backpack taken by police returned to her, including her phone and a notebook, which were in the backpack seized by police after she was taken into custody.
Mr Pillay said he had been told by police the backpack items would not form part of their evidence so there was no reason not to return them to Ms Nikolic.
Judge Aruna Alugthe said he would take the application under consideration and seek advice before making a decision.
The matter has been set down for further mention in the Latouka High Court on July 17.
Ms Nikolic is being referred to as Dianne Nikolic in court, where she arrived in an open police truck.
The couple reportedly embraced and said an emotional goodbye to each other at Denarau Marina before the former Melbourne horse trainer collapsed from a drug overdose and his wife was taken away by Fijian authorities, a witness told News Corp.
It is believed John, 45, remains on death’s door in the intensive care unit of the rudimentary Lautoka Hospital.
If the former Melbourne horse trainer survives drinking what News Corp Australia has been told was a toxic cocktail of liquid cocaine and a white powder, believed to be methamphetamine, there is a very real risk he will suffer long-term health problems or impairments.
Worse still, if charged and convicted he faces years of hell in a Fiji prison, ill-equipped for seriously sick or disabled prisoners.
The Australian captain of a luxury boat moored opposite the Nikolics’ catamaran Shenanigans on the day of the drug raid told News Corp Australia he couldn’t help but be moved by the loving farewell he witnessed between John and Yvette.
The captain, who did not want to be identified, said Shenanigans and the pier was teeming with authorities and sniffer dogs during the June 21 raid by Fiji Customs and Police.
“There were a lot of dogs, there was a cast of thousands here, they all acted very professionally and they obviously knew where to look … it had to be a tip-off,” the captain said.
“I think the saddest realisation was … when they realised that she was going to go one way and he was going to go the other, the embrace and all that, between a husband and wife, that was, to me, sad. To see that,” he said.
He said people watching at first believed John Nikolic had suffered a heart attack.
MORE: How did the Nikolics’ yacht trip go so wrong?
MORE: Disgraced horse trainer John Nikolic fighting for life in Fiji
MORE: Yvette Nikolic staring down possibility of life in prison
As late as Sunday afternoon, a Lautoka Hospital employee confirmed to News Corp Australia Mr Nikolic was still in its intensive care unit but his current condition is unknown.
Australian medical experts say drinking a toxic meth-coke cocktail is survivable if the drugs are pure and the dose is not too high.
But University Hospital Geelong emergency doctor Bruce Bartley said a high dose drug cocktail could certainly kill, and people with underlying heart or kidney problems were at the highest risk.
“A very large dose of either drug in its pure form can be fatal for most and undefined impurities can be lethal,” Dr Bartley said.
The hospital’s intensive care director, Neil Orford, has previously told News Corp lifelong health problems, disabilities, movement disorders and/or brain damage can follow.
And a reputable international overdose website says hypoxic brain injury — caused by lack of oxygen to the brain — can result in impairments of movement, balance and co-ordination, loss of hearing or vision and difficulty with speech, concentration and memory.
In the most severe cases, people can be left in a vegetative or semi-vegetative state.
Just a teaspoon of liquid cocaine can be enough to kill.
According to a Fijian lawyer who has clients in the country’s notorious men’s prisons, conditions are far worse than that at the recently built Lautoka women’s jail, where Yvette is being held, and prison life with chronic health problems or disabilities would be a hell on earth.
“A person with disabilities would certainly struggle in there. And while they may say they have infirmaries which provide quality medical care, this is in fact not the case,” Mr Aman Ravinda-Singh said.
Mr Ravinda-Singh, a Lautoka-based human rights lawyer and Assistant Secretary of the Fiji Labour Party, said years in a Fiji prison could break even the toughest of men.
“My clients who are serving prisoners tell me the conditions in prison are not good, they are not in accordance with prescribed prison conditions which would amount to being fit and proper and humane,” he said.
“Conditions vary at different prisons; if you are in remand there is a lot of overcrowding. You don’t have proper blankets, mattresses, and if you do have them they have bed bugs … there is a lack of hygiene. I have a client right now serving and he was telling me about the lack of sanitation and the lack of opportunity to visit the toilet … very inhumane. Even the food is not fit for human consumption. One of my clients has been in there for two months and he has been asking to see a doctor and he has been denied that. He is not well, he continues to vomit and he continues to reject the food but his pleas have fallen on deaf ears.”
Mr Ravinda-Singh said John Nikolic would have a much better chance of recovering from the drug overdose if he was in an Australian hospital ICU, rather than Lautoka Hospital’s “very basic” intensive care, which did not have the state-of-the-art medical equipment, high-level infection control and highly-specialised doctors generally found in Australian hospitals.
“It is not the best place for him,” he said.
Originally published as John and Yvette Nikolic’s emotional goodbye during raid
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