Australia is considering extradicting citizen

The Australian Government is considering seeking the extradition of Julian Moti who was appointed the new Attorney-General of the Solomon Islands on Thursday.

Mr Moti is an Australian citizen.

Sources said that Mr Moti would be arrested if he attempted to travel through Australia. This follows reports that he was scheduled in the next few days to transit Brisbane en route to Honiara from India.

It is believed that because of a wave of publicity about his past, he was intending to announce that he would not take up the job.

Mr Moti was in 1997 charged in Vanuatu of statutory rape of a 13-year-old girl. A magistrate dismissed the charge.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports the Australian Federal Police had already initiated extensive inquiries about the circumstances in which the charges in Vanuatu were dismissed as well as into alleged incidents in Australia.

Australia expressed concern and disappointment this week at the appointment of Mr Moti as Attorney-General amid deteriorating relations between Canberra and Solomon Islands' government.

He was banned by a previous Solomon Islands government from entering the country.

Source: SIBC