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Events on Friday 19 May 2000 1
2000George Speight's coup in FijiArmed nationalists seize Parliament and the prime ministerOn 19 May 2000 the failed businessman George Speight led armed men into Fiji's Parliament and took Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry, the country's first ethnic-Indian leader, and dozens of others hostage. They were held for 56 days before the elected government was dissolved and Chaudhry ousted. Speight was later convicted of treason and sentenced to life imprisonment.