The video (filmed on a mobile) shows three boys in school uniform beating a fourth boy with a hefty piece of wood.
The boys hit him and whoop as their victim cries out in pain. The incident took place at Ratu Kadavulevu School in Tailevu, about an hour’s drive from the capital, Suva.
The school is a prominent one in Fiji, alumni include national leaders: former prime minister, Laisenia Qarase, Fijian diplomats and some of the country’s best rugby players.
Frank Bainimarama, Fiji’s current prime minister, said he was “sickened and outraged” by the footage.
“It broke my heart – I saw my own children and grand-children in him, as I’m sure all parents did,” he wrote in a statement.
The three boys were charged with assault but there has been outcry that it took so long for the case to be reported to police when the assault was first reported to the education ministry last year.
