Fiji coup leader's trial adjourned to 2002

Speight and others were formally charged with treason for the plot against then prime minister

SUVA, Fiji -- Fiji coup leader George Speight's treason trial has been adjourned until January 2002 because of fears the presiding judge is too old, clearing any conflict with elections called to restore democracy after Speight's 2000 coup.

Fiji's High Court sat amid tight security before Justice Peter Summon adjourned the case after hearing legal argument he would pass the retirement age of 65 for judges during a case he expected to last at least seven months.

He referred the case to Fiji's Court of Appeal for a ruling on whether he was fit to continue hearing the treason charges brought after Speight stormed racially divided Fiji's parliament in May 2000, Reuters reports.

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"I am 65 and the (appeals) court needs to decide on that," Summon said.

Speight wore a traditional sulu skirt as he entered the court in an old colonial building in the Fiji capital of Suva.

But he was soon on his way back to his prison island of Nukulau off Suva, where he has been held with 12 co-accused for about a year.

Speight is contesting the week-long elections which begin on Saturday. His armed coup in the name of indigenous Fijian rights toppled the administration of Mahendra Chaudhry, the first ethnic Indian leader in racially divided Fiji.