Decision to jail woman quashed

A THREE-MEN Supreme Court bench on Monday quashed a National Court decision to jail Rolyn Yugari for six years on two counts of forgery in an attempt to steal a piece of land at 9-Mile, Port Moresby.
Justice David Cannings, Justice Ere Kariko and Justice Jacintha Murray ruled that the National Court trial judge had erred in law by failing to set out and address the elements of the offence and not adequately demonstrating that he was satisfied that the state had proven beyond reasonable doubt the elements of each offence of which Yugari was convicted.
The court found that Yugari was guilty on both counts on the indictment in the absence of evidence that either document was a false document and entered a conviction based on circumstantial evidence without applying its principles.
It also ruled that the errors were significant and rendered the verdict unsafe and unsatisfactory which meant that the decision of the National Court was based on a wrong law.
During the trial last year, it was alleged that in 2004, Yugari from Tani Village in Tari-Pori, Hela, forged two documents – a statutory declaration and an instrument of transfer – relied on by the registrar of titles to transfer a State lease over government land from a deceased person (the person whose signature Yugari was alleged to have forged) to Yugari and her husband.