Details of overdose attempt revealed in Nikolics’ Fiji drug trial
Former racehorse trainer John Nikolic appeared nervous on the second day of he and wife Yvette’s drug trial, as more details emerged of what he said when Fiji authorities raided his yacht.
John Nikolic allegedly told Fiji authorities “I know what you’re looking for”, during the June 22 raid on his yacht at Denarau Marina, after officers had discovered 10 bars of cocaine concealed under a hatch in the deck of the boat.
He then led investigators to a further three bars of cocaine, duct taped together into one brick, before asking to talk to his wife Yvette to “explain what he’d done”, the Suva High Court heard this morning.
The 13 bars of cocaine allegedly found on the yacht were produced in court this morning.
The bars, wrapped in plastic and some also duct taped, were removed from large brown paper bags and passed through the courtroom by gloved prosecutors and clerks, before being piled up at the front of the witness box for identification by the chief customs officer of the Fiji Revenue and Customs Service officer Tomasi Drisi, who was present during the raid.
The large, blue, rectangular plastic bag in which ten of the cocaine bars were allegedly contained was also produced to the court. Lawyers for the Nikolics objected to the cocaine bars being produced but Justice Daniel Goundar overruled their objections.
They will be stored in a secure room at the courthouse overnight after day two of the trial was abruptly suspended when one of the court’s three assessors became ill.
An assessor in a Fiji Court plays a similar role to a juror in Australia, with the judge seeking their opinion on guilt or innocence - before delivering his or verdict - at the conclusion of a trial.
A trial cannot continue without all three assessors being present.
The cocaine bars, earlier stacked up on the witness stand, were placed back in the blue bag that 10 of the bars had allegedly been found in on Shenanigans, taped up, and taken by court officials and lawyers to be stored.
It is not yet known if the trial will proceed tomorrow morning.
Mr Drisi had earlier told the court Shenanigans was on the radar of Fiji authorities because it had taken the same route as another boat, Friday Freedom, which smuggled drugs to Australia in 2011.
The second day of the Nikolics’ trial in Fiji started nervously for John Nikolic as Yvette was transported from jail to court in a separate vehicle.
A clearly worried John Nikolic looked around for his wife on arrival at the Suva High Court, appearing to expect her to alight from the front seat of the prison truck, where she had travelled on Monday.
The Suva High Court heard yesterday John Nikolic’s suicide attempt — when his boat was raided in Fiji — was an act of a guilty man.
Nikolic did what “a loving husband” might do, and tried to protect his wife Yvette by allegedly admitting sole responsibility for the drugs when authorities searched the yacht and then attempting to take his life, it heard.
On the first day of John and Yvette Nikolic’s trial in the Fiji capital, assistant Director of Public Prosecutions, Lee Burney said “it was Mr Nikolic’s parting gift to his wife to provide a life raft of a defence”, when the boat was raided at Denarau Marina on June 22.
Both John and Yvette Nikolic have pleaded not guilty to charges of drug importation and possession, as well to having undeclared weapons and ammunition on their boat.
The court had heard 10 bars of cocaine were found in the lazerette locker in the deck of the yacht, accessed by a hatch, and more drugs, money, weapons and ammunition were discovered inside the wall of the boat’s saloon bar.
A flask was also found in the washroom that John Nikolic had allegedly asked to visit during the raid, before lapsing into a coma.
Yvette, the owner of the luxury yacht, and John, the captain, had perhaps renamed their boat Shenanigans as a joke between themselves in the early days, as they had presented to the outside world a charade of embarking on a high-seas adventure, while in reality being involved “in the wicked international drugs trade”, Mr Burney alleged.
Their apparent plan - to “hide in plain sight” by posting on social media about their epic journey – might have been “flawed genius”, if it hadn’t been for the fact the Fiji Revenue and Customs Authority (FRCS) became suspicious of their yacht and selected it for closer inspection, he said.
“As it turns out, there was no hiding,” Mr Burney said.
Members of the Fiji Customs and Revenue Service (FRCS) suspicion told the court suspicion was aroused because Shenanigans was not “pinging” or “flashing” on a tracking screen, which was linked to a satellite used to track boats through Fiji waters through their Automatic Identification Systems (AIS).
Shenanigans only “pinged” when it got close to Denarau Marina, one FRCS witness said.
Supported in court by John’s disgraced jockey brother, Danny Nikolic, and his glamorous partner Tania Hyett, the Nikolic family embraced on two occasions and spent about 10 minutes sitting together, talking.
John and Yvette arrived and left, uncuffed, in an open prison truck, with Yvette sitting in the front of the truck with the driver and a female police officer.
Mr Burney said given John Nikolic had allegedly admitted responsibility for the drug haul, people might ask why Yvette was also being charged with drug smuggling and possession.
“The answer is, both of them were in control of the boat. She was the owner and he was the skipper,” he said.
John Nikolic had told Fiji authorities where some of the drugs were hidden on the boat when he realised “the shenanigans were up”, Mr Burney said.
He then asked to speak to his wife, and they shared an intimate moment, before he asked to go to the washroom, he said.
“In a dramatic turn of events”, John Nikolic then collapsed next to his wife and was found to be unresponsive by a doctor, with his pupils just pinpricks.
The doctor determined Mr Nikolic was in respiratory arrest following an overdose and he was rushed to Lautoka hospital, where he remained seriously ill for a number of days, Mr Burney said.
Being aware of the fact drug smuggling was a dangerous game, it was probably “the most natural thing in the world for a loving husband to seek to protect his wife in case the gamble did not pay off”, Mr Burney said.
Originally published as Details of overdose attempt revealed in Nikolics’ Fiji drug trial
Web of expenses: how to cut your internet costs
Making a smart connection to your internet expenses can save you hundreds of dollars a year, without any impact on speed.
‘Hey dumbass!’: Brothers’ Palestine posters charge
Two brothers charged with pasting “troubling” pro-Palestine posters throughout a major city CBD have faced court.