Delay by prosecutor a concern

MAGISTRATE Cosmas Bidar is concerned about the delay by the Public Prosecutor to sign election certificates for simple offences.
Bidar raised the concern at the Waigani Committal court after he adjourned the case of Gideon Russel.
Police had charged Russel with two counts of stealing.
Bidar said the case had been adjourned several times because a simple election certificate had not been signed.
“The Public Prosecutor’s office is only about 300-400m from here and it’s taking them ages to simply look at files and signing elections,” Bidar said.
He said he had been raising that concern for some time. Offences such as stealing and swearing required the Public Prosecutor to sign the election certificate for the cases to be dealt with summarily.
He said a number of similar cases had been adjourned because the public prosecutor had not signed the elections.
Police Prosecutor Sergeant Polon Koniu said he had called the office of the Public Prosecutor to follow up on the election of those cases, including Russel’s case.