Apenisa Waqairadovu 
The High Court of Suva has awarded damages of $4000 plus interest to a man for false imprisonment.
This is a big win for the Fiji Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination Commission, which in a statement says false or wrongful imprisonment is committed when one is detained or imprisoned by another person unlawfully.
It says the man known as Dutt was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment with a non-parole period of 12 months.
It says Dutt should have been given a remission of six months and subject to good behavior; he should have been released after serving 12 months; instead, Dutt served 16 months imprisonment.
The FHRADC says therefore, Dutt was confined in prison for further four months after he was due to be released, having served his term.
It says Dutt’s false imprisonment of the further four months was a result of the previous practice of the Fiji Correction Services to apply the entitlement to remission only to the sentence remaining to be served after the non-parole period has been completed.
It says this method of calculation was incorrect and resulted in Dutt only being given two months rather than two months remission.
The Commission further says if an inmate has been given a non-parole period, then the computation of the one-third remission still applies, but if the non-parole period exceeds two-thirds of a prison sentence, then the inmate must serve until the end of the non-parole period but must be released immediately at the end of the non-parole period.
