Drug smuggler John Nikolic has written a letter from prison about his wife Yvette

Drug smuggler John Nikolic has issued an impassioned Christmas plea to Fiji authorities to stop pursuing his wife Yvette.

Yvette and John Nikolic. Picture: Mark Stewart

Imprisoned Australian drug smuggler John Nikolic has written to Fiji authorities, demanding they stop pursuing his wife.

The former Melbourne racehorse trainer – who is languishing in a Fiji prison after being caught with bags of drugs, money and a gun on a luxury yacht – appeared in a Suva appeal court two days before Christmas.

The court heard Nikolic had written a letter asking the Fiji public prosecutor to stop trying to track down his wife, Yvette, in Australia, in order to serve her with appeal papers, extradite her to Fiji and retry her on drug smuggling charges.

But his pleas fell on deaf ears.

“We will not be responding to John’s letter as his views are of no use in the case,” Rajneel Kumar from the Fiji Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) told the court.

In a recent court decision, the mother of two was acquitted of all charges by the Suva High Court in February 2019 and allowed to return to Australia as a free woman, while John Nikolic was found guilty of drug smuggling and sentenced to 23 years in prison.

The loved-up couple had been on what they described as “the holiday of a lifetime”, sailing through the Pacific, via Colombia, before their yacht, Shenanigans, was raided by customs officials at Fiji’s Denarau Marina on June 22, 2018.

Thirteen bars of cocaine worth up to $30 million, drug tablets, guns and $15,000 in US $100 bills were found on Shenanigans, which was owned by Yvette.

During the raid John Nikolic tried to kill himself by taking a deadly drug, after telling customs officials Yvette knew nothing about the bars of cocaine hidden on the boat.

The ODPP launched an appeal shortly after Yvette’s acquittal and has been attempting to serve appeal papers on her ever since so she can be retried.

It this week asked appeal court judge Chandana Premathilake for more time to serve the papers.