A Methodist minister in Fiji is awaiting sentencing for contempt after he quoted a Law Society Charity report whose contents were first revealed in the Gazette.

The organisation headed by the Reverend Akuila Yabaki, the Citizens’ Constitutional Forum, also faces a crippling fine for ‘scandalising the court’ after its newsletter Tutaka quoted conclusions from Fiji: The Rule of Law Lost.

The report was written by charity chair Nigel Dodds, following a covert research trip to Fiji in November 2011 – a previous IBA delegation had been refused entry to the country.

In his judgment, Judge William Calanchini described Dodds’ conclusion that ‘the impartiality of the judiciary cannot be relied upon’, as ‘contemptuous words’ and said their repetition ‘cannot be said to be fair comment’. Dodds said this week that the judgment was both ‘worrying’ and ‘a disappointment’.

Fiji, ruled by an ‘interim’ prime minister since a 2006 coup, is currently suspended from the Commonwealth.