Ex-Fiji PM Mahendra Chaudhry arrested by military regime

Suva (Fiji), Oct 3(ANI): Former Fijian Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry has been arrested for allegedly breaching the military government's emergency regulations.

According to the BBC, Chaudhry, who is leader of the opposition Fiji Labour Party, was detained with five other people for holding public meetings in breach of the regulations, imposed last year.

He is expected to face court on Monday.

Voreqe Bainimarama, who seized power in a 2006 coup, imposed emergency regulations that ban public meetings when he abrogated the constitution in April last year.

Chaudhry became Fiji's first ethnic Indian leader when elected Prime Minister in 1999.

He was overthrown a year later in a coup led by hardline Fijian nationalist leader George Speight. (ANI)