Five escapees to be charged soon

By GABRIEL FITO
FIVE of the seven detainees who broke out of Boram jail in Wewak early last month are to be formally arrested and charged by police for escaping from lawful custody.
Boram jail commander Supt Michael Wundia said yesterday that among the five was a convicted prisoner whom they believed had masterminded their escape.
He said the convicted prisoner would be charged under the Criminal Code while his accomplices who were all remandees would be charged under the Summary Offences Act.
Another remandee, who was captured by police last week, is still nursing pellet wounds at the Boram General Hospital.
Mr Wundia who personally visited him at the hospital said the prisoner was confined to a wheel-chair and would take some time to recover.
Two of them have not been arrested as yet and Mr Wundia appealed to the community to help assist police in their endeavor to have them apprehended.
The detainees broke out of the prison on January 12 by removing an old rail inside the cell block and then cut a hole through the inner and outer fence before making their way out through the cell’s sewerage drain at night.
Correctional Services (CS) officers believe that the detainees must have used pliers or a side-cutter to make their way through the fence.
They suspected that such a tool should have been smuggled into the cell by the inmates or thrown into the prison by relatives as the cell block was next to the main road.
Meanwhile, Boram CS are donating rations to young prisoners at the Wewak Boys Town Juvenile Rehabilitation Centre.
The first batch of supplies delivered last week included five bags of rice, five cartons of tinned fish and three cartons of biscuits.
Mr Wundia said Boram CS would continue to support Boys Town every month because most of their juveniles were being rehabilitated there.