Magistrate tells police to work on cocaine-bust case quickly

By ZEDAIAH KANAU
A MAGISTRATE has put the police on notice, calling them to expedite the cases of the five men allegedly involved in the country’s biggest drug bust in July in which more than 600kg of cocaine was recovered from a ditched plane near Papa and Lealea villages, 30km north of Port Moresby.
Magistrate Laura Wawun Kuvi, who presided over cases in the Central Committal Court, warned police yesterday that “nobody should be held to ransom” regardless of the seriousness of a case because the Constitution always had the presumption of innocence which worked in the defendants’ favour.
Magistrate Kuvi’s remarks came after a submission by lawyer Agnes Peter, of the Public Solicitors Office, representing Australian pilot David Cutmore and calling for the cases to be struck out for want of police files.
She said the defendants had the right to have their cases dealt with in a reasonable amount of time, which had lapsed.
“There is submissions that the defendants have been in custody for five months now since July,” Magistrate Kuvi said. “The respective charges which were originally laid on them and kept them on detention has since been either withdrawn or struck out.