Magistrate warns relatives

By ZEDAIAH KANAU
A MAGISTRATE has warned relatives of defendants appearing from remand for their court cases to stop the practice of passing undisclosed goods to them after their hearings.
Magistrate Tracy Ganaii raised the concern yesterday due to security issues faced by the Waigani Committal Court where previously defendants on remand broke out of the court cell using objects hidden from court security.
“There’s a concern about relatives passing things from here,” she said.
“We don’t have the security in here to check the things or from here going out.
“So stop that habit of passing things to defendants from here.”
Magistrate Ganaii made the remark after an old woman, who was observing a court hearing, tried to pass something in a blue plastic to a defendant after he had completed his hearing and was exiting the courtroom dock.
She said the court was not a place for visits where relatives could come in and give items to their remandee family members while court proceedings were going on.
Magistrate Ganaii said the court was aware that they (defendants) may need certain things from their relatives to take back to prison but the items passed on can be anything because there was no check-in area inside a court room.
She said the practice could easily lead to dangerous weapons being passed to defendants as was the case last year when several defendants escaped by obtaining a weapon mysteriously and using it to break through the holding cell.
Magistrate Ganaii warned defendants and their relatives to stop the habit.
She said court security and police prosecutors should not allow the practice happening again inside the committal court.