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Thursday, November 17, 2011

Tiensten faces three charges

By SAMUEL RAITANO

MEMBER for Pomio Paul Tiensten has been charged with three offences, The National reports.
Police have charged him with one count each of conspiracy to defraud the state, abuse of office and misappropriation.
The charges relate to K10 million airfreight subsidies belonging to the state.
Tiensten is alleged to have committed the offences while he was the national planning minister in the Somare-Abal government.
Tiensten was expected to make his first appearance in court yesterday but did not turn up.
Tiensten’s lawyer, Arnold Amet Jnr, was at the Waigani District Court but had to leave because the matter was not listed for hearing and the police brief had not been made available to the court.
Although it was expected that Tiensten would have appeared in court yesterday, his name was not on the court list as well.
Police sources said the matter did not get to the court registry as expected yesterday because there were certain procedural matters that had to be taken care of first.
Tiensten is expected to be in court today in order for the court to read him the charges and to set bail conditions for him.
Tiensten arrived from Australia on Monday, and was arrested and charged by the Task Force Sweep team at the Jackson International Airport.
He was released on a K5,000 bail later that day.

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