Court to rule on Danaya’s charges

THE Waigani Committal Court will rule on Sept 12 on the remaining three charges of false pretence, forgery and fraudulent uttering against former Western governor Dr Bob Danaya.
On Aug 22, Magistrate Rosie Johnson directed Danaya’s lawyer to file a submission in response to the remaining three charges after striking out his conspiracy charge on Aug 8.
Danaya, who is the non-parliamentary leader of the PNG Labour Party, had been initially charged with conspiracy, false pretence, forgery and fraudulent uttering.
Yesterday, his lawyer told the court he had filed submissions on Aug 28 and served them in court and on the prosecutions.
The lawyer told the court their submission was based on the uses of sufficiency of evidence.
The main argument contained in his submissions was insufficient evidence on the part of the members of the Fly River provincial government council (FRPGC).
He said one of which was that the evidence of the members of the FRPGC on file were saying the same thing and none of their evidence arose from the FRPGC meeting.
In relation to forgery charges, Danaya’s lawyer told the court the FRPGC members were the signatory themselves who had signed the document.
“How can he (Danaya) forge signatures when they (FRPGC members) were signatories themselves?” the lawyer asked.
The charges relate to a Western provincial executive decision to terminate the appointment of provincial administrator, William Goinau.
The lawyer asked the court to dismiss the charges against Danaya.
The police prosecutions said they had no objections to the submissions.
On Aug 8, Johnson struck out his conspiracy charge as the persons with whom he had allegedly conspired with were not arrested and charged with the same charge.
Johnson said if anyone was charged with conspiracy, there should be another person facing the same charge too.
Danaya’s bail of K4,000 was extended but he was reminded that police could charge him again with conspiracy if files for the co-accused were in order.