SUVA, Fiji (voa) – Fiji’s high court has sentenced coup leader George Speight to death for leading an armed uprising that toppled Fiji’s elected government in May, 2000.
Monday’s sentencing came soon after Speight entered a guilty plea to treason at his trial in Fiji’s capital, Suva. The presiding judge ordered Speight to be executed by hanging.
Speight and his nationalist rebels stormed parliament on May 19, 2000, claiming ethnic Indians were undermining the rights of indigenous Fijian citizens. They ousted the ethnic Indian Prime Minster Mahendra Chaudhry and held him and members of his cabinet hostage for 56 days.
Defense attorneys and prosecutors have urged the judge to immediately recommend that the Speight death sentence be commuted to life in prison. Twleve others faced treason charges with Speight but attorneys say it is likely charges against those men will be reduced.
The attorneys say commuting Speight’s sentence and reducing charges against his accomplices will, in their words, “reduce tensions in the country.”
