By
EOIN BLACKWELL of AAP
PAPUA New Guinea's Police Commissioner has been
charged with contempt of court.
Tom Kulunga, who was appointed police commissioner
by Prime Minister Peter O'Neill, was charged with six counts of contempt by a
five-man Supreme Court bench for failing to carry out a series of court orders
in a timely manner.
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| Tom Kulunga |
Those orders included the arrest last November of
Deputy Prime Minister Belden Namah and Attorney General Dr Allan Marat on
contempt charges after they tried to suspend the chief justice.
Mr Namah and Dr Marat were in East New Britain
province at the time and it took police three days to arrest them.Chief Justice
Sir Salamo Injia briefly adjourned the matter today, ordering that an armed
police presence be removed from the court grounds.
Mr Kulunga's lawyer argued that there had been a
death threat against the commissioner but Sir Salamo ordered them to come no
closer that 500m from the court.
Sitting in the dock with his arms crossed and saying
very little during the proceedings, commissioner Kulunga was charged along with
his assistant commissioner Simon Kauba and Superintendent David Manning.
The trio were released on 2,500 kina bail to appear
again on May 7.
The latest courtroom appearance is part of an
ongoing thrust and parry between PNG's judiciary and the executive arms of
government.
Mr O'Neill and his team have tried repeatedly to
have Sir Salamo removed from office and passed laws in parliament on Wednesday
aimed at doing just that.
Former chief justice and attorney general Sir Arnold
Amet has added his voice to those condemning the law.
"There are many reasons why this scandalous,
mischievous, draconian and indeed 'corrupt' piece of legislation cannot be
allowed to stand," he said.
"As a former chief justice and attorney general
on behalf of all law-abiding citizens of PNG, I call on all our international
partners to denounce this most reprehensible decision in the strongest possible
terms.
"I
also now call on all the commonwealth law societies, judicial conferences of
the Pacific, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the European Union
and other democracies to express their support to this call to denounce this
most corrupt decision by this parliament
Sir Arnold should have thought about this before telling Senator Carr to back off. Now he is calling on foreigners to come to his aid. Is he confused? By now he should know that his turn coat colleagues will do anything to keep him out of government and to use state resources to see him lose his seat. On the Bill itself it is against the thrust of the Constitution. Supreme Court could be asked to review this mad law.
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