A motion seeking contempt against chairman of disbanded Investigation Task Force Sweep Team, Sam Koim, will return to the National Court on Feb 6, 2017.
The matter briefly came for mention today before Justice Collin Makail, who adjourned the case to next year because the lawyer representing the Prime Minister, Peter O’Neill, did not confirm instructions on the next step in their motion.
The motion was filed on March 2, 2016, by O’Neill seeking contempt charges against Koim.
It is asking the National Court to punish Koim on contempt allegations that he breached an order of July 16, 2014, against discussing matters relating to the Task Force Sweep Team in the media.
The contempt motion was filed against Koim after he ran a full page advert on Nov 18 last year in The National newspaper, outlining the progressive investigations of cases the Task Force Sweep team worked on.
The ITFS team was disbanded in an NEC decision in 2014, but was stayed by the National Court pending the outcome of a judicial review proceeding that has been in court for the past two years.
The judicial review against the NEC decision of 2014 was dismissed last Friday when Justice Makail found that the decisions the court was asked to review were policy decisions which are not “reviewable” in a judicial review proceeding. This is because the Courts could be seen as encroaching into the domain of the National Executive Council.
Justice Makail dismissed the judicial review and also discharged the stay orders issued in July 2014 against the disbanding of the ITFS team, which also stayed the establishment of the new anti-corruption investigation body; Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC).
With the stay orders now set aside, it paves way for the ICAC to be set up.