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By JOSHUA ARLO
Beer is the main contributing factor to deaths in PNG, National Court
judge Justice Ambeng Kandakasi said yesterday.
He urged the people not to solve problems under the influence of alcohol
but rather through Christian means.
Justice Kandakasi made these comments at the National Court in Waigani
after he acquitted two men accused of killing a man while fighting under
the influence of alcohol.
He said: “No Government, Member of Parliament, lawyer or police can
resolve our communities in peace, it’s up to the people to change.”
The two, Fayae Isumo and Linus Allen, were acquitted of the charge after
the court found that there was no direct evidence on their part for the
death despite State prosecutors alleging that it was that fight that
resulted in the death.
Instead, the court found them not guilty and released them from custody
after striking the case as the court saw that they had no case to
answer.
The court when acquitting them blamed the death on ‘beer’ or ‘spakface’
because the fight came out of an argument over beer.
The State had three witnesses to give evidence in support of the charge.
However, the court found their evidence conflicting.
The court also found that the main issue during the trial of whether
they directly caused the death or whether it was accidental was not
answered.
State prosecutors alleged that the death was a result of the fight and
that a punch that connected the deceased’s nose lead to his loss of
life, but this was not supported by a post mortem report given by the
second State witness.
The court said that the State was trying to make a case out of
circumstantial evidence and questions like where he fell, when he fell
and what made him fall were yet to be established after the State closed
their case.
He said since the court was in doubt and there was insufficient evidence
on the critical issue at trial, the court found that they had no case to
answer.
After he acquitted the two men, Justice Kandakasi said that he hoped
they were convinced not to drink beer as it was unfortunate that beer or
alcohol had caused a lot of trouble.
He said that from observation, there was only one person getting rich
from people consuming alcohol and that was the beer maker.
Justice Kandakasi said that if people drink, they were not seen as rich
or wiser, and added that problems could not be solved by drinking
alcohol.
He said in the case of the deceased, he was already drunk when he
instigated the fight by being disrespectful to a group of older men
nearby.
Justice Kandakasi added that the two accused overreacted when they tried
to make peace, adding that they should have just restrained him as there
was no need to fight.
“Violence by fist, axe or knife should not happen, if we say we are a
Christian country, we should start practising Christianity,” he said.
He urged the members of the public that attended the case yesterday in
court to leave beer, love one another and resolve all problems through
peace.
 
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