Kulunga jailed for contempt

By DAPHNE WANI
FORMER Police Commissioner Toami Kulunga has been jailed for seven months with hard labour for disobeying a court order to reinstate an assistant police commissioner in 2012.
The Supreme Court on Friday threw out Kulunga’s appeal and upheld the conviction on three counts of contempt and the sentence handed down by Deputy Chief Justice Sir Gibbs Salika in June 2014.
Justice Goodwin Poole delivered the majority decision of the Supreme Court (Poole, Justice Collin Makail and Justice Panuel Mogish) which said Kulunga clearly understood the orders to reinstate then Assistant Commissioner Geoffrey Vaki.
“We are unable to find that Justice Salika misdirected himself or fell into error and accordingly, we would dismissed the appeal against conviction,” Poole said. He said there could be no suggestion that Sir Gibbs had proceeded on a wrong factual basis or adopted a wrong principle in reaching his decision.
Kulunga was convicted by Sir Gibbs on three counts of contempt of court on May 15, 2014, and was sentenced on June 13 of the same year.
The contempt arose out of a court order on Oct 1, 2012, by Justice Nicholas Kirriwom to reinstate Vaki as assistant commissioner with benefits until his disciplinary charges had been adjudicated and determined.
Kulunga argued that none of the elements of the court orders had been established.
He submitted that there was no finding that he had acted intentionally in relation to the alleged non-compliance of the order.