Solomons lawyer in court over sex claims

The former top legal official of the Solomon Islands appeared in court yesterday after being deported on child sex charges.

Julian Moti, who was sacked as the Solomons' attorney general earlier this week after a change in leadership in the Pacific nation, was arrested by Australian police when he flew into Brisbane from the Solomons late on Thursday.

He appeared in a Brisbane Magistrates Court which remanded him in custody and adjourned his case until Jan. 4 to allow him to find legal representation, reports said.

Moti, 42, was picked up by police at his home in the Solomons' capital Honiara on Thursday and taken to the airport under heavy police guard after losing a late legal bid to fight deportation.

The lawyer, who was at the center of a bitter and public diplomatic row between Australia and the former Solomon Islands' prime minister Manasseh Sogavare earlier this year, was charged with having sex with a person under 16.

Moti, a Fiji-born Australian national who is a close friend of Sogavare, is accused of raping a 13-year-old girl in Vanuatu in 1997.

He denies the charges, saying they were dismissed by a Vanuatu court years ago and were revived by Australian authorities simply to prevent him from becoming the Solomons' attorney general.

Reports said Moti could face up to 17 years in jail if convicted.

The new Solomons government of Prime Minister Derek Sikua, which came to power last week, had pledged to send Moti back to Australia to improve severely strained relations with Canberra.

Moti was first arrested at the request of Australian authorities in Papua New Guinea in October last year on his way to the Solomon Islands.

He skipped bail and was flown to the Solomons on a Papua New Guinea aircraft and appointed attorney general by then Solomon Islands prime minister Sogavare.