Former Fijian MP Sam Speight reveals torture by 7th Brigade Colonel Ben Naliva

Former Fijian MP Sam Speight was beaten and tortured, he claims, by the man the Albanese government has chosen to be deputy commander of 3500 Australian troops.

‘I hold no grudges,’ says former Fijian politician Sam Speight. ‘I look at the bigger picture for Fiji – we want stability, we want to move forward’. Picture: Brett Phibbs

Sam Speight has lived in exile from his country for more than a decade, having been forced to flee his beloved Fiji after being beaten and tortured, he claims, by the man the Albanese government has chosen to be deputy commander of 3500 Australian troops.

Speight, 69, says he remembers the moment 13 years ago when he alleges Penioni (Ben) Naliva tried to sodomise him with the barrel of an M16 rifle as clearly as if it had happened ­yesterday.

It’s not something about which the former Fiji parliamentarian likes to talk, and there’s a long ­silence as Speight struggles to put his feelings into words. But eventually he lays out his allegations.

“He tried to do a very unsavoury act,” he says, finally.

“I was shocked.”

If Speight is to be believed, this wasn’t just an attempt by then-major Naliva to inflict pain. This was meant to humiliate … and it worked.

“It’s quite embarrassing, especially in our culture – it’s not the done thing to do,” Speight says. “Being a former MP, I thought, what brought this about, to deserve this degrading treatment?”

“I was surprised with that type of behaviour; I didn’t really expect it from our boys. Maybe a punch here or straight-out assault but to try and do something in that manner – I mean, we all have children, we have grandchildren, so it’s very hard to talk about. I hope people understand that.”

Lieutenant Colonel Penioni (Ben) Naliva presents a plaque to Commanding Officer of 8th/9th Battalion, the Royal Australian Regiment, Lieutenant Colonel John Eccleston. Picture: ADF

Speight, known in Fiji as Sami­soni Tikoinasau Speight, is speaking from New Zealand, where he has lived for several years after boarding a plane to Australia hours after he was released from custody.

The one-time cabinet minister and older brother of 2000-coup leader George Speight is now president of the local Fijian Association in his adopted home of Hamilton, on New Zealand’s north island.

He lives quietly, taking pleasure from the rugby union careers of sons Sam, a former inter­national, and Henry, who played with the Brumbies and Queensland Reds, and has just returned to Queensland after a three-year stint with French club Biarritz.

Yet three days ago he woke to a phone call from a friend that knocked the wind out of him.

Ben Naliva, his alleged torturer and now a colonel, had just been appointed deputy commander of Australia’s 7th Brigade, based in Brisbane.

“I was disappointed,” he says.

“I think Mr Naliva knows within himself whether he deserves it or not – that is for him to decide.”

Speight is clearly torn. He’s horrified Naliva has been so conspicuously honoured despite his alleged abuses, but he is conscious the appointment may have been made to help prevent yet another coup in the country he still loves.

He believes Naliva’s appointment was approved by current Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka because of concern that the soldier – still reputedly loyal to the previous regime of Frank Bainimarama – was the military officer most able to stage a coup against an already unstable government.

“Probably there’s a thought process where they really wanted to neutralise that threat by getting him away from the military back home,” Speight speculates.

In 2006, the Bainimarama-led coup deposed the Laisenia Qarase government in which Speight was minister of state for public utilities, and he became a strident opponent of the military-backed interim government. “They saw us as a threat, that’s why they wanted to do these things – to ­silence people,” he alleges.

Former coup leader George Speight with his brother and election campaign manager Sam in 2001.

In February 2011, Speight was arrested by soldiers and driven to the military barracks.

After two days left in a cell, he claims he was awoken at 3am with a kick in the head and ordered to crawl on his stomach to a guard room while being kicked and abused by half a dozen soldiers, some wearing balaclavas.

Then, Speight claims, the torture began.

As he lay on the concrete floor, he alleges, scalding hot water was poured beside his legs and he was repeatedly beaten on the back and head with the butt of an M16 rifle.

“I was at one stage made to sit on a chair where I was slapped and punched,” he would later write in a signed statement.

“I was made to lay my hands on a table where they proceeded to bend all of my fingers and thumbs backwards to almost breaking point, resulting in excruciating pain.”

Then came the alleged incident that he claims has haunted him ever since.

“I was on the cement floor lying face down, receiving blows to my back and head and my head being stepped on by a boot.

“The soldier whom I identified as Penioni Naliva was armed with a M16 rifle and I was shocked when I felt the metal barrel of the gun forcing my shorts down from the hip exposing my buttocks and to my horror he attempted to force the point of the gun into my rear end.

“I turned over and asked what was he trying to do, to which he responded by swearing and confirming his intentions. I struggled to my feet and was further assaulted. The assault and interrogation seemed to last forever.”

Speight was later released with a warning not to oppose the ­regime, and told that “next time I would be taken out of the camp in a coffin”.

The following day, he boarded a plane for Brisbane to escape ­further arrest and to get medical attention, which he received at Redcliffe Hospital.

He had to wear a neck brace as a result of his injuries.

Sam Speight escaped to Brisbane for medical treatment.

Speight was granted a protection visa and lived in Australia until 2017, when he moved to New Zealand.

He’s grateful for the safe harbour Australia offered in his hour of need, and reluctant to condemn a decision its government has made.

“The decision to appoint Mr Naliva to a senior position in the ADF – I respect the Australian government’s decision to do that, but from the (alleged) human rights record that follows Mr Naliva, that’s an issue. I don’t understand the rationale.”

Speight was able to return to Fiji last year to visit relatives without the threat of arrest and jail, following the defeat of the Bainimarama government.

He’s happy to put the past - and Naliva - behind him. “I hold no grudges,” he says. “I look at the bigger picture for Fiji – we want stability, we want to move forward; that’s more important than my issue.”