Man freed of charges related to land dispute

A court has acquitted a man accused of causing grievous bodily harm and wilful destruction of a property at 7-Mile in Port Moresby after finding errors in the way the case was prosecuted.
Justice Panuel Mogish, of the National Court in Waigani, acquitted Ben Saka Wia after he upheld the submission by his lawyer Edward Sasingian that witnesses had mentioned various dates for the alleged offence.
Wia was accused of hurting Nigel Saka and Steven Nop, and destroying fence posts worth K8000, and 400 metres of fence posts and fencing wires valued at K20,642.45, the property of Nett Holdings Limited, on Aug 11, 2016, during a land dispute.
The State alleged that Wia was in the company of others in three vehicles and a backhoe, armed with dangerous weapons when he went to the address in Erima, which belonged to Jeffery Dean Kennedy.
Wia denied the charges.