Convict’s plea for reduced jail term trashed

By PETER MIVA
A CONVICTED robber’s appeal to the Supreme Court has been described as “frivolous, vexatious, unmeritorious and an abuse of process of court”.
His appeal was filed in the regulated time and failed to satisfy all legal principles.
The prisoner, Alex Pori, from Wau, Morobe province, represented himself before the bench of justices Cathy Davani, Panuel Mogish, and Kingsley David.
The Supreme Court threw out the application.
Pori had argued that the eight-year jail sentence imposed by the National Court on Sept 19 last year was “too excessive”.
He was sentenced for the Dec 13, 2004 robbery at the Sawdust Compound in Wau.
Pori and two accomplices were armed with a home-made gun and two knives.
The three held up a Daniel Nathawiku and while Pori held the gun, his two accomplices searched the victim.
They took K2,200 in cash, a 36.6g of gold valued at K841.80, a pair of shoes worth K25, a string bag valued at K15 and a pair of glasses valued at K15 and fled with the booty.
Members of the public gave chase but stopped when Pori fired.
Pori reasoned that he surrendered himself to the community leaders after the robbery and was doing community work but was arrested by police as a suspect in another crime.
But he claimed there was no proof against him for robbery charges.
But the Supreme Court bench ruled against his application and unanimously agreed that the prisoner had abused the court process when he failed to file the application within the 40-day statutory period and offered no good reason for the delay.
The court ruled also that there were no strong or convincing reason or exceptional circumstance that warranted a review.