Waigani National Court

Alex Una, 38-years-old, from Gogoi village, Rigo, Central Province, and his lawyer went before the court with a bail application last Friday.

That application was refused today by Justice Panuel Mogish because he was of the view that no good reason was put forward by Una to support his bail application.

The judge also raised concerns about the substantial amount of money that was stolen which is yet to be recovered by police.

“A staggering amount of K1.195 million was stolen from Tropicair staff. There is no evidence that all the monies have been recovered.

This happened after he lost sight to his right eye and four teeth at the hands of police.

The Waigani National Court ordered the state to pay Nathan Kandakasi damages for breach of human rights, civil wrongs committed by police, false imprisonment and malicious prosecution.

Kandakasi was assaulted by police, arrested and detained for two days following an incident at the Vision City carpark on March 29, 2012.  

The court found Mami Kaniku and Helen Ove not guilty of misappropriation charges after the state failed to prove the element of them dishonestly applying K493,240, to their use, beyond reasonable doubt. 

The husband and wife were the only shareholders and directors of a company: West Coast Shipping Ltd. West Coast Shipping was engaged to provide transportation services with a “seaworthy vessel fully certified” to “deliver much needed relief cargo to the areas identified by the Gulf Provincial Disaster Coordinator”. The coordinator was Jerry Hape.

Joseph Wai was given a concurrent sentence of 4 years for two different charges, which the Waigani National Court found him guilty for.

He was recently convicted for conspiring with others to misappropriate K180,000. The monies misappropriated were from 781 grams of gold he got to see on behalf of Anna Sani, a local gold buyer in Wewak.

The gold was valued at AUD$36,000 which the court calculated to be equivalent to K180,000.

Filed in the Human Rights track of the Waigani National Court, the case sought a declaration of the court to nullify the purported students reaffirmation form, which the UPNG administration issued to them to sign when the suspension of semester one was lifted.

Justice David Cannings dismissed the case last Friday for want of prosecution after the SRC showed no interest in the case. Neither their lawyer, Laken Lepatu, nor the former president Kenneth Rapa had been appearing in court for the matter since June.

On August 25, 2015, Ricky Antio pleaded guilty before the Waigani National Court to receiving K1,500 stolen cash monies.

He was sentenced by Justice Panuel Mogish to 11 years’ imprisonment with hard labour this week.

Antio spent 11 months in remand at Bomana before he was released on National Court bail on Sept 26, 2014.

The court deducted those 11 months spent in remand from the head sentence of 11 years, leaving Antio with 10 years, one month.

Justice Mogish further ordered 3 years to be suspended from that remaining 10 years – one month jail time.

Mariano Edward Lakae of Apanaipi village, Bereina, Central province, was convicted by the Waigani National Court for conspiring with Jimmy Maladina and Herman Joseph Leahy. They plotted to defraud the then NPF and misappropriated a total of K235,000 between 1998 and 1999.

Deputy Chief Justice Sir Gibbs Salika, in his decision, said there was evidence Lakae met with Maladina to discuss his engagement to provide valuation service and that he would share his fees with Maladina.

Yama is seeking contempt charges at the Waigani National Court against former Electoral Commissioner Andrew Trawen, the returning officer involved in the Madang Open by-election recount in 2014, Simon Sinai, and their lawyer Harvey Nii.

He is seeking contempt charges against Trawen, Sinai and Nii on allegations they misled the court with wrong information when the court was dealing with an election petition filed by Yama challenging the election of current Madang Open MP Nixon Duban.

They are owners of shops at the Erimart shop complex. They appeared before Justice Panuel Mogish on Monday, November 7, for a trial to answer to allegations that they were selling printed jerseys and polo shirts containing counterfeit logos for the PNGRFL, Kumuls and Hunters.

However, before the trial started, the court was made known of a declaration filed by the State saying the trademarks were never registered by the complainant, the PNG Rugby Football League.

The District Court today ordered the committal of Jude Nidung, David Travolta, Gregory Tuaki, Alwin Matiabe, Tobias Samson and Kenneth Yangun, to the stand trial after it ruled on Oct 6 that it had sufficient evidence against them.

They returned to court with their lawyer today and told the court they wish to remain silent with regards to a section 96 statement. This statement is in response to the court’s ruling on the sufficiency of evidence. They will now defend the allegations against them in the National Court.