16 Facts About Laisenia Qarase

Laisenia Qarase served as the sixth Prime Minister of Fiji from 2000 to 2006.

Laisenia Qarase won two parliamentary elections, but a military coup removed him from power on 5 December 2006.

Laisenia Qarase was later imprisoned on corruption charges brought by the military-backed regime.

Laisenia Qarase was born in 1941 into the Tota clan in Mavana on Vanua Balavu, the son of Josateki Mate of Mavana village.

Laisenia Qarase got his first job at the Fijian Affairs Board and served as a career civil servant at the ministries of Finance, Commerce and Industry and Public Service.

Laisenia Qarase entered the banking profession and became the first ethnic Fijian managing director of the publicly owned Fiji Development Bank in 1983, a position he held for fifteen years.

Laisenia Qarase introduced the nine-point plan which oversaw extended government assistance to Fijians and the creation of Fijian Holdings.

Laisenia Qarase's mother is the daughter of John Herman Ma'afu Bowman, who had Jewish parents, Alexander Bowman and Sara Annette.

Laisenia Qarase was married to Leba Qarase, with whom he had five children.

Laisenia Qarase was a chief in his native village of Mavana, on the island of Vanua Balavu, where he held the traditional chiefly title of Tui Kobuco.

Laisenia Qarase told Radio New Zealand that he was "down but not out"; he intended to fight on, and called for a peaceful popular uprising.

The BBC reported that after being warned by Commodore Bainimarama not to "incite violence", Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase planned to return to Suva, from which he was banished, but was warned that he faced arrest if he returned.

Laisenia Qarase initiated a court challenge to the coup on 4 October 2007.

Laisenia Qarase was one of several politicians banned from running for office and his political party was forced to disband.

In January 2010, it was reported that Laisenia Qarase would stand trial on charges, brought by the Military-backed interim government, of abusing his office.

Laisenia Qarase was found guilty of abusing his office and failing to perform his duty, and sentenced on 3 August 2012 to one year in prison.