Detainees

“Because of a few things, many innocent, genuinely sick detainees will have to face the consequences as well,” says Bomana jail commander, Haraha Keko.

Speaking to this newsroom, Keko said this is a challenge for him and his management team to address and maintain the status quo. This is to avoid complicated situations with prisoners, especially at Bomana.

Keko said they had spoken to the inmates earlier this week to help contain their anger and frustrations over the indefinite ban.

Orders and directions on the ban on detainees’ leave of absence were carried out yesterday by CS officers. This saw prisoners on medical LOAs be exempted from hospitals and transferred back to Bomana CS facility immediately.

Bomana CS Jail Commander, Haraha Kidi Keko, yesterday directed his officers to organise and pick up detainees from the three major hospitals; Port Moresby General, Gerehu and the Pacific International Hospital.

Justice Panuel Mogish is in Lae to assist the crimes court in the Morobe Province with its backlog of cases.

He said unlike the situation in other provinces, detainees awaiting and attending court at Waigani from Bomana have good interaction with the courts regarding their case.

He adjourned all matters listed before him at Waigani this month to July during the call over early this week.

He encouraged those on bail in Port Moresby to return to court next month.

Chief Justice Sir Salamo Injia told lawyer representing the Chief Migration officer and Minister for Immigration, Laias Kandi, to produce a list of all transferees to Manus. The list should indicate their names, individual status of each transferee and also the date they arrived in Manus.

The instructions came from the Chief Justice as a way forward to see if any steps have been taken in adhering to court orders issued on April 26, which was in the Namah-filed Supreme Court reference regarding the regional processing centre.