A 27-year-old police officer from Jiwaka has been committed to stand trial at the Waigani National Court after the court ruled it had enough evidence to put his case forward for trial.
Stanley Tempon also known by the name Soti from Kindeng village in the Anglip District, Jiwaka Province will appear for listing in the National Court on Feb 20.
Senior Committal Court Magistrate Mekeo Gauli on Thursday gave his ruling in the case against Tempon.
Tempon was alleged to have aided a murder suspect escape custody from the Boroko Police station on March 10, 2016. He is alleged to have done so with another man, Tony Leo.
He was arrested and charged with willfully permitting a murder suspect to escape from custody on July 29,2016.
The suspect was held in custody on allegations he killed his wife awaiting CID investigations. Police did not formally charge him at the time of his escape.
The suspect, Bradley Neri was re-arrested and formally charged three days later for the willful murder of his wife at Tabari place.
In giving his statement after the court’s ruling, Tempon denied the offense and said it is a practice that a suspect held in custody on Summary offenses must be charged within eight hours while for Criminal Code offenses, a suspect can be kept in custody and charged within 24 hours.
In his case, Tempon told the court that the suspect at the time was kept over 24 hours when he released him during the change of shift for that day, after no formal complaint was laid.
However, Magistrate Gauli told the court that Tempon had returned to work after his shift ended that day to release the suspect.