Court to hand down decision on Namah’s leadership tribunal case

A DECISION on the leadership tribunal case of Vanimo-Green MP Belden Namah will be handed down after the tribunal deliberates on the submissions received on Friday.
The chairman of the tribunal is Justice Terrence Higgins. The members are principal magistrate Patrica Tevese and senior magistrate Alex Kanadi. Justice Higgins told the National Court in Waigani that the decision would be made known after going through the submissions.
The prosecution submitted 10 allegations against Namah. He admitted to eight of the allegations.
The prosecution submitted that the court should seriously consider the allegations against Namah which were committed when he was an elected leader and a Member of Parliament.
The prosecution also submitted that the allegation of Namah’s improper conduct and abuse of power on May 24, 2012, when he stormed the Supreme and National Court while court was in session and demanded the immediate resignation and arrest of the Chief Justice was unprecedented in PNG.
Namah’s lawyer Greg Sheppard submitted that despite the allegations based on misconduct in office, the people of Vanimo-Green had repeatedly elected Namah to represent them in Parliament. Sheppard said the people had shown trust in his leadership.
Sheppard said Namah was with other ministers of Parliament during the 2012 incident at the National Court, and the mere fact that he was the only one appearing before the tribunal bench was questionable.