PNGBLOGS

NATIONAL REPORTS SERIOUS breaches of human rights by police in Popondetta have prompted the senior provincial magistrate there, William Noki, to suspend all court cases before him. Noki, Northern’s only magistrate, refused on Monday to hear any more court cases prosecuted by the Popondetta police in protest of what he termed “serious human rights abuse and violation of the law by police”. And he gave the police an ultimatum: “If your behaviour continues, I will have no choice but to dismiss cases against suspects who claim they had been tortured or brutalised by police”. Before a crowded Popondetta court room of prominent citizens, journalists, non-governmental organisation representatives and police personnel, Noki said: “This not a police state.” “We live in a democratic country and the rule of law must prevail. “It is the responsibility of police to make arrests, and not behave like mobsters. “I am tired of cases of people being taken into custody and their rights abused. “Police h

NATIONAL REPORTS SERIOUS breaches of human rights by police in Popondetta have prompted the senior provincial magistrate there, William Noki, to suspend all court cases before him. Noki, Northern’s only magistrate, refused on Monday to hear any more court cases prosecuted by the Popondetta police in protest of what he termed “serious human rights abuse and violation of the law by police”. And he gave the police an ultimatum: “If your behaviour continues, I will have no choice but to dismiss cases against suspects who claim they had been tortured or brutalised by police”. Before a crowded Popondetta court room of prominent citizens, journalists, non-governmental organisation representatives and police personnel, Noki said: “This not a police state.” “We live in a democratic country and the rule of law must prevail. “It is the responsibility of police to make arrests, and not behave like mobsters. “I am tired of cases of people being taken into custody and their rights abused. “Polic