Salesi Temo is a Fijian jurist. In January 2023 he was appointed acting

Chief Justice of Fiji The chief justice is Fiji's highest judicial officer. The office and its responsibilities are set out in Chapter 5 of the 2013 Constitution of Fiji. The Chief Justice is appointed by the President on the advice of the Prime Minister Prime Mi ...

. Temo worked as a magistrate, and played a prominent role in prosecutions following the 2000 Fijian coup d'état. He continued in office after the

2006 Fijian coup d'état The Fijian coup d'état of December 2006 was a coup d'état carried out by Commodore Frank Bainimarama, Commander of the Republic of Fiji Military Forces, against the government of President Josefa Iloilo. Iloilo was removed as president, bu ...

, and accepted reappointment following the military regime's abrogation of the 1997 Constitution of Fiji during the 2009 Fijian constitutional crisis. In June 2009 he was appointed to the

High Court of Fiji The High Court of Fiji is one of three courts that was established by Chapter 9 of the 1997 Constitution of Fiji — the others being the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court. The Constitution empowered Parliament to create other courts; the ...

as an acting

Puisne judge A puisne judge or puisne justice (; from french: puisné or ; , 'since, later' + , 'born', i.e. 'junior') is a dated term for an ordinary judge or a judge of lesser rank of a particular court. Use The term is used almost exclusively in common law ...

by the military regime. In September 2011 he criticised the New Zealand government for refusing to cooperate with Fiji's military regime or extradite people wanted for political offences by the dictatorship. On 30 January 2023 he was appointed acting chief justice following the suspension of

Kamal Kumar Kamal Kumar is a Fijian jurist who served as Chief Justice of Fiji from 2019 to 2023. Kumar was educated at the Queensland University of Technology in Australia, graduating with a bachelor of laws. he worked as a lawyer in Australia, and then in ...

for misbehaviour.

Honours

In October 2020, he was awarded the 50th Anniversary of Independence Medal for his services to the judiciary.

References

Living people Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century Fijian judges Chief justices of Fiji {{Fiji-bio-stub