Court erupts in Paraka case

By TREVOR WAHUNE
A LAWYER, who lost his cool when a senior magistrate labelled his application “misconceived” during a ruling yesterday, became involved in a heated war of words with the magistrate and police prosecutors in the Waigani Committal Court.
Magistrate Cosmas Bidar refused a case law application filed by lawyer Paul Paraka that intended to dismiss charges of alleged abuse of process filed against him by the Fraud and Anti-Corruption Office.
A heated argument took place followed by accusations of contempt by both sides before the lawyer was told by a prosecutor that he had no respect for the court and ordered to “get out”.
Magistrate Bidar told Paraka that he had other cases still pending in the committal process and that he could not expect different outcomes by filing application after application based on the same or similar argument.
“Such is an abuse of process,” Magistrate Bidar, told Paraka. “You have no jurisdiction and that’s all. The court’s view is that filing of application after application is an abuse of process.”
He said the court had a duty to protect its processes from being abused because the same applications had been filed time and again since 2013. Bidar said whether the committal orders were made or not, the court was permitted to exercise that statutory duty under the law.
“Having considered this application and the material relied on, including a case law adjourned by Magistrate Mekeo Gauli in respect to other matters which we are not bound to comply with, the court’s view is that this is yet another misconceived application,” he said.
Bidar said the application had no basis and was not convincing.
After the ruling, Paraka stood and told Magistrate Bidar: “You are completely wrong in this judgment. You have gone against the spirit of the five-man bench.” When Bidar was about to speak, Paraka insisted: “You are completely wrong. I’m going to have you charged with contempt of the Supreme Court so that you will never produce a decision with this case.
“Anyone who goes against the merits of the Supreme Court orders are in contempt of the court.”
He told Bidar that he would file contempt proceedings against him in the Supreme Court.
Bidar adjourned the case to March 8 because the files had not been served on Paraka.
Paraka: “Thank you, your worship, for the last few years of being together but I don’t think I will ever see you again.” At that point police prosecutor Sergeant John Wamuru jumped in and said: “Excuse me your worship, this is a threat, can we lock him up?”
Paraka retorted: “Well, you know it’s intentional, the case I’m going to file is going to be substantive.”
Wamuru: “You have no right to say that. Get out. You have to respect the court. You are a professional lawyer and you should know the right processes to take.”
Anti-Corruption lawyer Pare Kuiap said the files had been served on Paraka, but Paraka had failed to file evidence to challenge the case.
“Instead of doing that he says he has not been served the file, but we have served the file already.”