Judge calls 30-year-old bench warrants

By BEVERLY PETER
ABOUT 37 bench warrant cases in National Capital District and Central that had been on the list for 30 years were called in the National Court in Waigani on Friday.
Judge Panuel Mogish, upon calling those cases, said police officers must check the files and go to the location of the offences and check to see if the witnesses in the crimes were still alive.
Judge Mogish said this was because those bench warrants were on the list for the past 30 years and still needed to be executed.
“Going by the list and checking if the witnesses are still alive or not can help us tick the cases off and the public prosecutor can then do its job whether to proceed with the cases or to discontinue,” he said.
“This won’t be done overnight but at least we start somewhere and will get there in time.
Judge Mogish said there must be a breach between the formal justice sector and the informal justice sector so that we all work together.
He said the arresting officers of 22 of the 37 bench warrants cases called had retired and the arresting officers of the other nine cases died.
The remaining six cases were unknown to the criminal investigation division.
Judge Mogish said they had worked on something to sort out those bench warrant list in 2016 but it had stopped along the way.
“We must complete it and would be done through the court user forums that will be conducted in other centres as well,” he said.
He said the list would be called again in December to check on the progress and status of the cases.
Meanwhile, Judge Mogish urged police to take pictures, get details and finger prints when arrests were made.