Amenoni Nasilasila

The Olympic gold medallist is appealing his eight-year sentence for the rape of a young woman in 2018.

In court Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions, Lee Burney, said they had received the affidavit in reply by Nasilasila's lawyer, Mosese Naivalu.

Naivalu sought to have the affidavit submitted to the State, paginated and certain iTaukei messages in the affidavit be translated into English.

Naivalu told the court this was because the copies before the court registry and the trial counsels had not had their pages numbered.

Nasilasila is appealing his eight-year sentence - he was jailed in September for the 2018 rape of a young woman.

In court on Tuesday, the Olympic gold medallist claimed his former defence team had failed to tender documents which included messages between him and the victim.

Nasilasila's new lawyer Mosese Naivalu also informed the court that his client and the victim had been in contact for 19 months.

The matter has been adjourned to 3 November when the trial counsels will respond to Nasilasila's claims.

Amenoni Nasilasila was sentenced to eight years in September for the 2018 rape of a young woman.

Last week, the 26-year-old Olympic gold medallist was reportedly seen training with the Namosi rugby teams in Suva.

But women's rights groups say the preferential treatment of high-profile prisoners has to stop.

Shamima Ali, of the Fiji Women's Crisis Centre, said the fact that Nasilasila's non-parole period was six years also highlighted the complete disregard by the department to allow him to participate in training with the Prisons and Namosi rugby teams.

Local media reports the sentencing was handed down in the Lautoka High Court today.

Last month, Justice Daniel Goundar overturned the assessors' unanimous opinion of not guilty and convicted Nasilasila of the rape, which took place in December in Sigatoka.

The judge also said the victim was further subjected to victimisation by rugby fans on social media during the case.

A non-parole period of six years has been set for Nasilasila.