Misappropriation Case

The three men, Kevea Moi, Saroa Beredi and Willie Abari filed the application on grounds that there was no evidence that the plaintiff (named) was authorized by the Rouna ILG to file the proceeding, and that his position as Chair to the Rouna ILG was not duly registered.

Chairman of the Narime Clan of Rouna, Saroa Beredi said, “With the help of our lawyers, the proceeding was dismissed.

“We argued that our accuser (named) was not recognised by the Rouna ILG as chairman and that he did not have support of the landowners under Rouna ILG to even take us to court.

The former director of the National Library and Archives, Jacob Hevelawa, his wife Miriam Hevelawa, and the former corporate service manager of the National Library and Archives, Timothy Numara, were found guilty on Friday for conspiring with each other to misappropriate K118,846.30 last year.

The three were arrested and charged in January 2016 with one count each of abuse of office, dishonestly applying K118,846.30 and conspiring to defraud the state of the said amount.

He told the court he is willing to repay any amount deemed fit by the court as his penalty.

Wartoto returned before Justice George Manuhu today where he was given the opportunity to address the court on what sentence he thinks the court should impose on him.

He apologised to the court and the State for the resources used to conduct the trial which resulted in his guilty verdict on March 29.

 Pala was facing 28 charges containing 14 counts of abuse of office and 14 counts of misappropriating more than K2 million, monies belonging to the state, in particular the Rigo district.

All the charges were dismissed today by Magistrate John Kaumi because document evidence before the court did not support any of those 28 charges. His bail monies of K6,000 will be refunded.

The court found that the appellant, Peni did not show evidence that a miscarriage of justice took place in 2013 when the trial judge found him guilty.

Justice Ambeng Kandakasi in reading the unanimous decision of the full court said appeals do not undo convictions but are only there to correct miscarriage of justice where it occurs.

He said the trial judge had found beyond reasonable doubt that Peni dishonestly applied to his own use and to the use of others, K2, 700,000, property belonging to the Autonomous Region of Bougainville Government.

The trial will commence today and run through to July 12, next week Tuesday before Justice George Manuhu.

The matter was supposed to commence on Monday this week but was deferred because Potape had a Provincial Assembly meet in Hela on Tuesday.

The re-trial was ordered after the Supreme Court on July 31 last year quashed Potape's conviction and sentence after a successful appeal.

The court today ruled that Immigration and the chief migration officer had no standing in their application and refused to grant orders to hand over the passport of businessman, Peter Ling Koh Woo, so he can be deported.  

Woo was allegedly ordered by the chief migration officer to be deported from the country within seven days of the notice being served. His lawyer, Greg Sheppard, told the court last week that his client was never served the order.   

The Committal Court on April 22 ruled it was satisfied that there is an existence of sufficient prima facie evidence on the charge of misappropriation against Kavo.

What was returnable today in court was a ruling that was supposed to be made to Kavo’s section 96 statements or his response to the district court finding sufficient evidence against him.

This will now take place on May 24.

Kavo of Herekela village, Ihu district, Gulf province was arrested on June 17, 2015, on misappropriation charges and released two days later on a K5,000 bail.  

On October 30, the Waigani District Court ruled that on sufficient evidence it had to commit the case for trial at the National Court.

Today statements were presented before the District Court. Simon is facing allegations of two counts of false pretence and 38 counts of official corruption.

Simon’s lawyer said when the election petition against Simon was dismissed at the National Court in 2013, the same allegations were later used to criminally charge him.

Hickey’s lawyer returned to the District Court before Magistrate Mekeo Gauli this morning but without the leader.

He arrived minutes later but did not go into the court room.

Police prosecution today handed in their response of submissions that were previously made by Hickey’s lawyer before Magistrate Gauli.

The matter has since been set for a ruling on December 4.

Hickey first appeared before the district court on March 18, 2015.