PNG: Jail term for police boss

Papua New Guinea’s Police Commissioner Toami Kulunga was jailed for seven months for contempt of court on Friday – but he has been granted bail to appeal against the sentence in the Supreme Court.

Deputy Chief Justice Gibbs Salika handed down the sentence in a packed Waigani courtroom saying the court was “sending out a clear message that its orders must be respected and obeyed”.

Salika read the 14-page ruling, keeping the courtroom in suspense until the last page where he mentioned the “seven-month jail term with hard labour” on each of the three counts to be served concurrently.

Salika said police officers should be the first to obey court orders because the courts relied on them to carry out orders.

Kulunga spent a little over four hours in the court’s holding cells while his lawyers hastily applied to the Supreme Court for bail pending appeal.

Kulunga’s legal team led by lawyer Lance Okil made the application before Justice Ere Kariko, sitting as a single judge Supreme Court. He granted Kulunga’s release on a 10,000 kina (NZ$4755) bail.

The National Court last month convicted Kulunga of contempt after he failed to reinstate Assistant Police Commissioner Operations Geoffrey Vaki to his post as per the court orders issued by Justice Nicholas Kirriwom on October 1, 2012.

Salika said in his ruling: “If the top police officer of the country does not respect and obey court orders and the laws and is allowed to go unpunished, how can we then expect the people of the land to respect and obey the laws of the land?”

“If this senior state office holder (Kulunga) is not appropriately punished, other senior state office holders similarly inclined will not be deterred,” he said.

“The result will be that ordinary members of the public may not understand nor appreciate the obligation to respect and obey the laws of the country.

“Those of us in positions of leadership and authority are vested with statutory powers to be exercised when situations arise for such powers to be applied.”

Salika said police officers should be the first to obey court orders.

“The courts rely on them to carry out their orders, but this disobedience should not be tolerated,” he said.

“I consider this non-compliance of the court orders in this case to be a serious dereliction of duty at the highest level, a serious insult and disrespect to the authority of the court orders, thereby bringing the administration of justice into disrepute.”