Child-sex case against Julian Moti revived

THE child-sex case against former Solomon Islands attorney-general Julian Moti has been revived.

THE child-sex case against former Solomon Islands attorney-general Julian Moti has been revived.

The move came after appeals court judges rejected a finding that the financial deal the Australian Federal Police struck with the alleged victim and her family had sunk the prosecution.

The latest twist in a saga that soured diplomatic relations between Canberra and the Pacific, before last year exposing the AFP to a humiliating court ruling over its methods, is a setback for Mr Moti's bid to avoid trial for the alleged sexual assault of the then teenager in Vanuatu during the 1990s.

The Queensland Court of Appeal yesterday quashed an order made last December by Supreme Court judge Debra Mullins to permanently stay the proceedings against Mr Moti, who claims he is being prosecuted in Australia for political reasons.

Justice Mullins found that the payment of living allowances and expenses to the parents and brother of the alleged victim in Vanuatu, totalling $81,639 to last November, raised questions about the integrity of the Australian justice system and was an "affront to the public conscience".

"It squarely raises whether the court can countenance the means used to achieve the end of keeping the prosecution of the charges against the applicant (Mr Moti) on foot," the judge found.

The Court of Appeal, in ordering that the stay on proceedings imposed by Justice Mullins be set aside, said yesterday the latter had made crucial errors in failing to recognise that the payments were not intended to procure, and had not procured, evidence from prosecution witnesses.

Although they were deemed to be "beyond the existing guidelines", the payments were not illegal, the appeal court ruled.

The fact the AFP had handed over money in response to demands by the family, who had threatened to withdraw the complaint against Mr Moti, did not necessarily affect the propriety of the arrangement.

"The conclusion that the making of the payments was such as to bring the administration of justice into disrepute if the prosecution were allowed to proceed was not, in my view, open on the facts," Court of Appeal judge Catherine Holmes found.

Other members of the appeals bench concurred with her decision to set aside the stay by Justice Mullins.

The office of the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions said last night the case against Mr Moti would resume.

"The matter will be listed before the court to deal with bail and the further conduct of the matter," said a spokeswoman for the DPP.

The Court of Appeal dismissed submissions by Mr Moti's legal team that his removal from the Solomon Islands amounted to a "disguised extradition" to Australia, in which the federal government had concurred or connived.

The defence argument for a stay on the ground that the prosecution was politically motivated was also rejected by Justice Holmes.

Mr Moti, 44, was charged under the Child Sex Tourist Act, which was introduced by the Howard government.

The alleged offences date back to 1997, when the alleged victim was 13.

Mr Moti was initially arrested in 2006 in Port Moresby while in transit to the Solomon Islands capital of Honiara, where he was to be sworn in as that country's attorney-general by his close friend and the then prime minister of the Solomon Islands, Manasseh Sogavare.