Judge cites drop in cases

EAST New Britain’s criminal list is slowly being reduced and can be attributed to hardworking judges, Kokopo residential judge justice Salatiel Lenalia says.
Farewelling justice Don Sawong during a luncheon last Friday, Lenalia said in April last year, the province had 107 pending cases but by the end of last month, the province had 62 pending, mainly bail and remand cases.
Sawong has been transferred back to Waigani and will be replaced by acting judge David Maliku.
Lenalia said Sawong came in 2009 when the list was back-logged.
 “In May last year, there were 109 pending cases, with 149 bench warrants and, this year, the pending cases are ready to be tried are 72 cases.”
He said bench warrants had increased to 193.