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State witness in the Bainimarama assassination plot case, Lance Corporal Peniasi Kuli told the Fiji High court yesterday 13 weapons taken from the military armoury in the wake of the 2000 coup were still missing.
Forty soldiers from the now-disbanded Counter Revolution Warfare (CRW) section of the Fiji military attempted to take control of the army barracks in November 2000.
The CRW dissidents managed to penetrate the armory during the failed mutiny attempt.
Kuli was answering questions put to him by two defence lawyers on day two of the case.
He told the court he was sanctioned in 2000 to infiltrate the community and gather information on the whereabouts of the missing weapons, weapons he said could be used to assassinate Bainimarama after the failed mutiny at the army barracks.
When asked by defense lawyer Mehmood Raza whether he had located any of the missing weapons, Kuli replied: “No sir, I’m still looking and getting information on where they are.”
The court also heard that Kuli gave a statement to police in November 2006 saying he attended a meeting at the Fiji Teachers Association hall in Suva where a list of arms including AK-47s and night vision glasses was compiled to be used in the assassination of Bainimarama, and that businessman Ballu Khan was going to finance the purchase.
Raza in defence told the court that while Kuli was undercover, no weapon(s) were found by him nor was any given to him.
“They were just discussing how they were going to do it (assassinate Bainimarama),” Kuli said.
The trial continues today.
