Lawyer chases journos out of courtroom

A LAWYER who was charged with cheating on Aug 8 and was let out on bail yesterday threw a tantrum and chased two reporters out of the Waigani Committal Court.
A senior police officer, prosecutor Sgt John Wamugl, told the two reporters from The National that lawyers or any other people had no right to remove journalists in a courtroom.
“A lawyer or any person attending court do not have any right or power to remove court reporters or journalists from courtrooms as they are only doing their job,” he said.
“It is the magistrate of these committal courts who have the power to make orders for journalists to leave courtrooms,” he added.
Wamugl was commenting on the incident in courtroom No.3 yesterday morning in which lawyer Edward Keke Komia “evicted” two reporters from the room.
Komia was charged before magistrate Ernest Wilmot on Aug 8 with one count of conspiring with another to defraud and one count of misappropriation of a certain group of landowners’ of Hides PDL1 trust monies.
The case was adjourned Aug 22 for submission.
Komia was in the courtroom to present his arguments on the charges raised against him but was roused when he spotted the two reporters.
He asked the two whether they were reporters and when they confirmed that they were, he demanded for them to leave the courtroom in the presence of other court attendants.
The incident occurred in the absence of Wilmot as well as court security officials.