De’silva granted bail by National Court

mlipen National, Normal

A SRI Lankan man, who was refused bail by the Boroko District Court for committing several offences, was granted bail yesterday by the Waigani National Court following a successful appeal.
Handun Sivanka De’silva, 44, of Colombo, Sri Lanka, was kept in custody for the past four days when bail was refused by the Boroko District Court for breaching a previous bail condition that was imposed on him on some earlier charges.
De’silva was slapped with three charges-  remaining in the country without a valid entry visa, discharging a firearm and threatening to discharge a firearm.
The matter came before the district court last Friday and his counsel, Michael Wilson of Warner Shand Lawyers, submitted a bail application to discharge De’silva from custody.
The appeal was refused when the court found that De’silva
had committed the offence while under a bail condition on an earlier offences which were also pending in the national and district courts.
The earlier offences related to possession of pornographic materials.
De’silva was released on a K1,000 bail.
However, while out on bail, he was re-arrested for committing the other offences which consequently resulted in his bail being refused by the district court.
But Mr Wilson was not satisfied with the District Court’s decision and appealed to the National Court to reconsider the bail application.
The court yesterday, presided by Justice Panuel Mogish, found that the presiding magistrate did not take into consideration the interests of justice.
Justice Mogish said the magistrate’s findings were based only on the fact that there was a charge of an offence made against the suspect during the time that he was on bail in relation to other offence.
The judge also found that there was an abuse of human rights, failure to consider the interest of the prisoner’s family and his business interests.
While handing down his decision, Justice Mogish ordered that the applicant be given K1,000 bail and his
passport be handed over to the National Court registry by the respondent.