Courts orders passport to be released

THE Waigani Committal Court yesterday ordered the court registry to release the passport of Malaysian businessman Peter Ling Koh Woo to his lawyers.
Magistrate Cosmas Bidar ordered that Ling’s passport be returned to his lawyers, Young and Williams law firm.
Ling is facing a charge of misappropriating K352,794.73 belonging to a company.
Bidar said Ling was deported without his passport.
He questioned what interest the Department of Foreign Affaris had with Ling’s passport.
He said the passport was now the property of the Malaysian Government and not the property of the Papua New Guinea’s  Foreign Affairs department.
Bidar adjourned Ling’s case with the hope that he would return to court.
Bidar said  the reasonable thing to do was to adjourn the case since the accused was out of the country.
He said Ling left the country without his passport so he would need his passport to return.
Bidar made this ruling after Ling’s lawyer Greg Shepherd moved an application in court requesting the release of Ling’s passport.
Police legal officer Clement Havak objected to the release of Ling’s passport.
Ling was charged for false pretence with intent to defraud, misappropriation and two counts of attempts to pervert justice while he was employed as a managing director of a company between Oct 11, 2012 and Oct 7, 2015 at Waigani Village in Port Moresby.
Ling first appeared on Feb 12, after he was re-arrested for the same allegations.
His case was previously struck out on technical grounds.
The court heard that Ling’s  passport was confiscated by the court registry office to ensure that he did not leave the country pending his court appearance.