Horse trainer John Nikolic appeals Fiji cocaine smuggling conviction as Yvette is hunted in outback
John Nikolic has launched a shock appeal against his Fiji drug smuggling conviction and 23-year jail sentence. It comes as Fiji authorities try to find his wife, who is believed to be in the Northern Territory outback.
Police & Courts
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Former Melbourne horse trainer John Nikolic has launched a shock appeal against his Fiji drug smuggling conviction and 23-year prison term.
It comes as Fiji authorities try, and fail, to track down his wife Yvette, who is living as a free woman in Australia and believed to be somewhere in the Northern Territory outback.
John Nikolic is challenging his conviction on technical grounds, including whether evidence provided by Fiji Police’s chief scientific officer should have been accepted by the court.
Nikolic also submits his sentence - which carries an 18 year non-parole period - is “manifestly harsh and excessive”, and is alleging his Fiji defence team in the long-running High Court trial was incompetent.
Clad in a face mask to protect against coronavirus, Nikolic appeared briefly in the Suva-based Court of Appeal this month, represented by Fiji Legal Aid.
The court heard the Office of the Department of Public Prosecutions (ODPP) was seeking to find and serve appeal papers on Yvette Nikolic - who was believed to be living somewhere in the Northern Territory - so she could be brought back to Fiji and retried.
In February last year the High Court found Ms Nikolic had “no case to answer”, acquitted her of all charges and allowed her to leave the country.
Like her husband, Ms Nikolic faced charges of importing illicit drugs into Fiji and possessing arms and ammunition without a licence.
Thirteen bars of cocaine worth up to $30 million, drug tablets, guns and $15,000 in US $100 bills were found on the Nikolics’ yacht Shenanigans when it was raided by Fiji Customs authorities at Denarau Marina on June 22, 2018.
The loved-up couple and parents of two had been on what they described as “the holiday of a lifetime”, sailing through the Pacific before their yacht was raided.
John Nikolic was convicted of all charges and sentenced to jail by the High Court of Fiji in March last year.
The court heard when the first stash of 10 cocaine bars was found under the yacht’s deck, John Nikolic told customs officers where they would find more.
He took sole responsibility for the drug smuggling, claiming his wife knew nothing about it, and was heard to say during the raid that he owed “dangerous people” a lot of money and “a Colombian” had put something in a bag on the boat.
He then tried to kill himself with a drug cocktail and fell into a coma.
Nikolic is serving his jail term in notorious Suva prison.
The Nikolics’ yacht Shenanigans was sold by Fiji Customs, after Yvette lost a court bid last year to win it back.
The Sunday Herald Sun has sought comment from the Nikolics’ former, privately-engaged legal team.
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