Court told to speed up cases against detainees

RELATIVES of many accused held at Bomana prison have called on Chief Justice Sir Salamo Injia and Justice Panuel Mogish to speed up hearing of cases.
Memafu Haro, spokesperson for the group, said despite all the controversies surrounding the Judicial Conduct Act, it could help deal with the protracted delay in hearing of cases by certain judges of the National Court.
Haro said some detainees had been held for more than three years and their cases were still pending.
He said one such case was the Kerema Bank South Pacific robbery.
Haro expressed disappointment with the crimi­nal directorate of the National Court and the registrar for not focusing on disposing of long protracted cases.
“The Kerema bank heist is a case in point. To date there have been no indictments brought against the accused but they are being held for reasons only known to the public prosecutors office and the judge in charge of criminal ca­ses,” he said.
He questioned where the rule of law was when it came to the ordinary citizens.
“I believe many provisions of the constitution dealing with rights and obligations
of the court may have been breached,” Haro said.