Conviction Christian institutions & contexts Other or denomination not established Suva, Fiji · 2017

Fiji: self-styled 'last prophet' convicted on all ten counts against four women of his prayer group

Record class

Core record

Evidence status

Convicted

Authority role

leader of the Jezreel Lion of Judah church, styling himself 'the last prophet' and claiming to be Jesus within the group

Organization

Jezreel Lion of Judah, Suva

Archive classification

This is the archive's application of its published inclusion test. The cited record appears below.

Four women held silent for years by the belief that speaking against the prophet meant sickness or death — the threat was the doctrine.

Prophecy or divine command
Threatened spiritual consequence

Evidence structure

Proceedings

2017-06-27 · conviction on all counts and sentence

High Court of Fiji, Suva. Jone Cokanauto, leader of the Jezreel Lion of Judah church who styled himself 'the last prophet' and claimed to be Jesus within the group, was found guilty on all ten counts — rape, indecent assault and attempted rape — against four women members across thirteen years. Victims testified he told them they would sicken or die if they spoke. He was sentenced on 27 June 2017 to 20 years with a nineteen-year non-parole period.

Documented coercion mechanisms

death-and-sickness threats framed as spiritual consequence for disclosure
thirteen years of prophetic authority over the group's women

Cited record

Sources

national public broadcaster sentencing report RNZ Pacific: 'Fiji pastor jailed for 20 years for rapes'.: Regional public broadcaster's court report.
national newspaper court reporting trial report Fijivillage trial coverage.: Documents the spiritual-threat testimony.

Source provenance

Source access and integrity log

This log records source retrieval and file integrity. It does not mean that an automated process independently confirmed every statement in the source.

Source and tier basis: https://www.rnz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/333899/fiji-pastor-jailed-for-20-years-for-rapes Corpus classification: national-public-broadcaster; evidentiary role: sentencing-report. SHA-256 68f5c16a5bd64ec75af85d2465140e5f5362d0d259a5ecfe754caabca7d84f74
Retrieval: 2026-07-20 · Preserved; Bound by Fear automated source-preservation ledger
Source and tier basis: https://www.fijivillage.com/news/He-said-we-would-get-sick-or-die-if-we-said-anything-about-him--Alleged-rape-victim-in-Cokanauto-trial-92rk5s Corpus classification: national-newspaper-court-reporting; evidentiary role: trial-report. SHA-256 54167c8d6aee0120efd6e8f000500b79a195074c1127915301cb2237f43727b0
Retrieval: 2026-07-20 · Preserved; Bound by Fear automated source-preservation ledger

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