Fiji coup leader Mr George Speight appeared before a magistrate today at the start of a hearing which will decide whether he is to stand trial for treason after toppling the nation's first ethnic Indian prime minister.
Treason carries a maximum penalty of death in Fiji but capital sentences are generally commuted.
Mr Speight told reporters as he arrived at the court in the capital Suva from his island prison he had no regrets about holding Mahendra Chaudhry and most of his multi-racial government hostage for 56 days last year in the name of indigenous rights.
The magistrate, who must decide whether or not to send Mr Speight for trial in the High Court, adjourned the committal hearing until next Tuesday.
Up to 300 Speight supporters greeted the coup leader, who was brought to court in a navy patrol boat, but they were stopped from following him into the court precincts with tight security cordoning off the building in central Suva.
Mr Speight, a failed businessman, stormed parliament on May 19th last year with a group of nationalist Fijians. Fiji's ethnic-Indians, who make up about 44 per cent of the country's 800,000 population and are descended from indentured labour shipped in by the British in the last century, have long dominated the economy yet struggled for political power.