Court of Appeal yet to confirm date for man convicted of rape

The Fiji Court of Appeal is yet to confirm the date for the case of a 31-year-old man convicted of raping a 9-year-old girl last year.

Ilaitia Nalawa’s case was to be called at the Fiji Court of Appeal in June this year but it was deferred as the judge was not available.

There has been no confirmation on the new date by the Court of Appeal yet.

Nalawa was sentenced to 18 years imprisonment after he was convicted of raping a 9-year-old girl in Nakasi in July last year.

His lawyer Panapasa Tawake has filed for an appeal against the conviction and sentence.

Tawake has filed the appeal on the grounds that the trial judge had erred in law and fact when he said continuously throughout the trial that the identification of the perpetrator was not an issue.

Tawake says the judge knew that there were grave inconsistencies in relation to the identification of the real perpetrator.

The appeal also states that the trial judge erred in facts to acknowledge the doubt concerning the DNA evidence that found no match of Nalawa’s DNA on the items recovered from the scene including the complainant’s clothes.

Tawake also said in his appeal that the trial judge erred in law when he sentenced Nalawa to 18 years with a non-parole period of 17 years, which was above the sentence tariff of rape.