Court stops sales by disabled trio

 By JUNIOR UKAHA

THREE men living with disabilities were yesterday told by a court to stop selling their wares on the present site because it was not a designated market place.

The Lae City Council took Jerry Terry, Timothy Herape and Ishmael Ishmael to court for selling cigarettes and other items in the city contrary local level government laws. 

Ishmael was accused of selling cigarettes at the Snack Bar, Herepe at the Super Value Store Top Town and Terry near Papindo Trading. 

Terry and Ishmael had to wait outside the courtroom for the decision because they were on wheelchairs and could not enter. They had to be represented by a friend Morris Dangka.

Magistrate Posain Poloh told Dangka that his friends were doing business at the wrong places and should go to the ward markets established for vending. 

“I find them guilty of the offence. But because they are disabled I am not sending them to prison but to allow them to go back and sell their things at a declared ward market,” he said.

Poloh told Dangka that the law applied to everyone including the prime minister and disabled people.

He warned the trio that if they disobeyed the court’s directions, they would be sent to prison.

When the court’s decision was relayed to Terry and Ishmael outside the court house, they expressed their disappointment.

“We can’t go and sell our wares with able-bodied people in the markets. They are rough on us,” Ishmael said.

“And if fights happen, how can we escape?”