Case adjourned over language problems

By DAPHNE WANI
FIVE Chinese men charged with assembling and smuggling fake cigarettes worth more than K100,000 in Port Moresby have had their case adjourned because of a language problems.
Waigani Committal Court Magistrate Cosmas Bidar allowed the adjournment because the Chinese nationals were confused as to what language the court would use to read out their charges.
Zhaodong Zeng, Huiyi Lin, Lele Li, Kaiwen Ling and Shenghiai Wuu are from Fujiang in China.
Bidar said they were charged under the Criminal Code Act which contained a different wording of the charge.
They were all granted bail of K1000. Bidar ordered them to surrender their passports to the Committal Court registry in Waigani.
Their lawyer moved an application seeking to have the case adjourned to communicate with his clients respectively.
It is alleged that on August 17, 2016, at the Green Finger Estate in the Gordon industrial area, the five allegedly concealed 26 cartons and 35 loose Double Happiness Smokes and counterfeit Cambridge cigarettes inside the L&G Trading Building.
Police also alleged that L&G Trading was used to sell building materials but was used to hide the cartoons of counterfeit cigarettes.