At a press conference on 16 January, FLP leader Mahendra Chaudhry blamed Prime Minister Qarase for the standoff with the Military. As "evidence," he cited an alleged plot to depose Ratu Josefa Iloilo from the presidency in 2000, which Bainimarama, who implicated Qarase, claimed to have foiled. He pointed to the selective releasing of coup-convicts from prison, the controversial Reconciliation, Tolerance, and Unity Bill providing for amnesty to be granted to coup convicts, and the protracted process of commissioning of a Judge Advocate to oversee a court martial retrial.