BRISBANE, Australia (AFP) — The former top legal official of the Solomon Islands faced an Australian court on Friday 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 Thursday.
He appeared in a Brisbane Magistrates Court which remanded him in custody and adjourned his case until January 4 to allow him to find private legal representation, Australian Associated Press reported.
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 centre of a bitter and public diplomatic row between Australia and the ex-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 last year simply to prevent him 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 as part of its policy of improving severely strained relations with Canberra.
Moti was first arrested at the request of Australian authorities in Papua New Guinea in October last year as he transited through the country on his way to the Solomon Islands.
But he skipped bail and was flown to the Solomon Islands on a Papua New Guinea military aircraft and was appointed attorney general by then Solomon Islands prime minister Sogavare.
Sogavare, who was ousted this month in a no-confidence motion, had staunchly refused to hand Moti over to Australia, saying he would not give in to "bullying."
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on Friday welcomed Moti's deportation, saying he had told the previous Solomons' government that his position was "hardline" and that Australia expected Moti to be returned.
"Since then the government of the Solomon's has changed and I indicated when the government changed we were looking forward to a better relationship with the new government," Rudd said.
"I appreciate the fact that the new government of the Solomons has moved early to return Mr Moti to Australia -- now these matters lie with the appropriate legal authorities within Australia."
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