This week in court

This week in court was one which saw trials being conducted in the Supreme Court on cases ranging from Kandep Open seat election petition review hearing to the Hela governor seat issue.

Judges who sat on the Supreme Court bench in the Kandep trial heard submissions on Monday from lawyers representing Don Polye and Alfred Luke Manase.

The trial on the case filed by Komo-Margarima MP, Francis Potape, over the Governor election on July 5 was heard on Thursday morning before the case filed businessman Larry Andagali, over the Electoral Commission’s delay in conducting a by-election for the Governor’s seat, was heard in the afternoon.

The judges who heard arguments in the trials reserved their decision for a later date.

This week also saw a number of sentences done and accused convicted for criminal offenses in the National Court. A number of prominent cases also got dismissed and discharged.

The Supreme Court on Monday discharged the inquiry that was conducted by Chief Justice Sir Salamo Injia into the status of orders issued by the Supreme Court in April. This related to the asylum seekers’ detainment in Manus.

The inquiry was discharged and stopped from further continuing after the same court that issued the orders agreed that the inquiry was being conducted out of jurisdiction and without terms of reference.

This now leaves the transferees, who are now called residents, held at the Regional Processing Centre in Manus seeking summary judgment before the Supreme Court.

The residents’ lawyer, Ben Lomai, filed for summary judgment on Thursday. They will be seeking their release from the detention centres and compensation for breach of their constitutional rights.

They will also be asking the court to order that the PNG Government consult with the Australian Government to facilitate resettlement of all the asylum seekers and refugees back to Australia, or to a third country that is durable to resettle them.

In criminal matters before the National Court, a former police officer, Paul Wailapu of the Wosera-Gawi District in East Sepik Province, was sentenced to 20 years in prison for killing his wife. The incident happened outside the Chilly Peppers club in Port Moresby on Dec 11, 2014.

A woman from the Esa’ala district in Milne Bay Province, Sandra Sikari, will spend one year, 10 months at the Bomana Correctional Institute after she failed to repay monies she stole from her former employer. She was jailed for stealing K23,000 from Post PNG when she planned a robbery with a man on January 31, 2015.

In the Committal Court, a case against Attorney-General Ano Pala, where he was arrested and charged for, on Nov 2, 2015, with one count of defeating the course of justice, perverting the course of justice and abuse of office, was dismissed on Wednesday.

Pala’s case was formally withdrawn and dismissed from the Committal Court by Magistrate John Kaumi following a Supreme Court ruling on July 21. The Supreme Court then found that the arrest warrant of the Attorney-General was invalid and quashed his criminal charges in the District Court.

Also on Wednesday, the Committal Court found insufficient evidence of misappropriation against the former managing director of PNG Power Limited, John Mangos, dismissing his case.

He was arrested and charged on March 15 for dishonestly applying the property of PNG Power, abuse of office and conspiring to defraud PNG Power. 

Magistrate Kaumi dismissed the case, ordering a refund of Mangos’ K5000 bail monies. The court also ordered the return of his passport that was in custody of the court registry.

Author: 
Sally Pokiton