10 years for manslaughter

By JIMMY KALEBE
A POLICEMAN has been jailed 10 years with hard labour at Buimo prison in Lae for manslaughter.
When sentencing Ryan Osara at the National Court on April 9, Judge Lawrence Kangwia said the jail term should be a deterrent and punitive to reflect the peculiar nature of the case in which police brutality was exposed – killing the very people he had sworn to protect.
Osara, on April 28, 2020 was with his colleagues on patrol in the 2-Mile area at 7 Block outside Lae.
When they approached a gathering, Osara went out of the vehicle to disperse the crowd and in the process picked up a 20-litre container and struck the victim.
He later grabbed an iron rod and hit the victim on the back, causing the victim to fall down and vomit. The victim was taken to hospital where he later died.
His defence lawyer Patricia Sawanga submitted that he be given a non-custodial sentence with probation orders because he was a first-time offender with a simple background, had expressed remorse and was willing to pay compensation among other reasons.
Lawyer representing the State Stefan Wusik submitted that death should be natural and no-one should take the life of another person, and the sentence imposed should be both deterrent and punitive to reflect the nature of the case.
The State lawyer also submitted that aggravating factors outweighed the mitigating factors and the appropriate sentence should be between 13 and 16 years’ imprisonment.
“Life of a human being is what the law safeguards the most,” Kangwia said.
He said for a sentence to have a deterrent effect, it must not be compromised by probation or compensation orders.
Starting off with a head sentence of 12 years, Kangwia suspended two years as the prisoner was a first-time offender. Osara had spent two years in custody.