Dept looking into dismissed cases

JUSTICE Minister Bryan Kramer says several cases have come to his attention of a trend of cases being dismissed by the committal court.
Kramer said “some cases were getting to trial and sentences were handed down by the National Court, but it appeared that there were compensations paid, rather than imprisonment”.
He said among these were cases of murder and serious crimes.
Kramer told Parliament that the public prosecutor would be looking at several cases raised in relation to “cases of poor investigations, insufficient evidence or error in judgment”.
“These issues, when it comes to criminal prosecution, lie in the jurisdiction of the public prosecutor, which is a constitutional office and falls outside the jurisdiction of the Department of Justice,” he said.
“Under the Constitution, he (public prosecutor) is beyond anyone’s direction or control, but soon after becoming aware of those cases, I had a meeting with the attorney-general and asked if he could meet with the public prosecutor and find out the circumstances behind the cases that led to those judgments or matters dismissed in the committal court, whether it was a case of poor investigations, insufficient evidence or error in the judgment that his department may consider appealing.
“The attorney-general did confirm he met with the public prosecutor and he did give an undertaking to have his staff review the cases and whether those cases be bought before the Supreme Court for appeal.”
Northern Governor Gary Juffa said the country was watching and the latest incident of the case in Mt Hagen had seen talks of the burning down of the Mt Hagen Court House.
“There is a deplorable trend of the injustice that is becoming prevalent in violence against women, girls and children,” Juffa said.
“There was a protest march in Mendi, requesting justice for a young woman who was killed in her prime, allegedly by her husband.
“This protest took place because apparently, there was insufficient evidence or prosecution file was not in order, the matter was dismissed.”
“This is becoming so normal and prevalent in our society with violence becoming normalised.
“If we are not careful, we can become numb to it. We must not expect this, we must do something drastic to counter this rise in evil against our womenfolk and children. We read about it and see it, but we still do nothing about it.
“There is breakdown in what we call the justice system.
“Somehow, these matters are snuffed out like the lives of countless women and children before they are even given the opportunity to whisper their cry for justice.
“This is an issue that has confronted us, every government.
“I would like us to do something.
“Our people are crying out for justice.”