Fiji interim government apologises to detained unionist

Posted at 19:27 on 25 September, 2012 UTC

Fiji’s interim government says the reason police stopped the president of the Trades Union Congress from boarding a flight to Beijing was because they were not aware he was allowed to travel.

Daniel Urai had cleared immigration yesterday morning on his way to a World labour conference when police detained him saying they had had an order from Suva to stop him leaving the country.

Mr Urai has been on bail since last November over charges laid almost a year ago of urging political violence and since has had to apply for a permit to leave Fiji.

He says he showed the police the court order permitting him to fly to China but they only freed him after the plane had left.

In a statement, the interim regime says the border police were unaware of that court order.

It says Mr Urai eventually left Fiji on a later flight to attend the International Labour Organisation meeting and it regrets any inconvenience caused.