Court frees MRO robbery suspect

AN East Sepik man, who faced “very serious charges” of alleged armed robbery on Feb 14, 2007, of the Metals Refining Operations (MRO) in Port Moresby, is now a free man.
Martin Hombi has been released from his charges due to the prosecution not being able to produce any evidence on identification of the accused, presiding judge Justice Salatiel Lenalia said, while throwing out the case at the Waigani National Court yesterday.
“I find that there is no evidence to establish to the court if the accused was on the three scenes of these crimes.
“There is no evidence to show if the accused was on the scene of both: when the company car was being held up.
“Similarly, there is no identification evidence on the scene of the robbery.
“In order for the State to establish a prima facie case against the accused, the identity of the accused should be made out and some evidence should be adduced to the court to infer the accused’s identity or as to the accused one of the perpetrators of the offences he is charged with.
“There is even no circumstantial evidence before this court to infer if the accused was one of the accomplices of the series of crimes that were committed on the night of Feb 14, 2007,” Lenalia said.
The specified night of Feb 14, 2007 is none other than the one in which K78,000 cash was taken and four gold bars valued at K2,066,115.56 were robbed and have still not been recovered.
 The three charges laid against Hombi were supposedly related to the crimes that notorious bank robber William Nanua Kapris was involved in.
Kapris had pleaded guilty and was sentenced to five years jail term.
The video footage of the robbery was crucial to identification of the accused, but that was not called upon by prosecution.
Policemen investigating the case also did not provide evidence for identification, making the case by Hombi’s lawyers strong enough for the judge to agree to discharge the accused.