Man helped police work, allowed bail

The National Main Stories

By BOURA GORUKILA
THE Waigani National Court yesterday allowed bail for a suspect in the Lealea cocaine case because he had helped police in their investigations.
Justice Danajo Koeget was convinced that Shane Dikana, 31, from Lealea village in Kairuku-Hiri, Central, had assisted police by showing them the alleged airstrip where a plane loaded with cocaine had landed.
He took them to some alleged concealed items and led them to the other suspects so he was granted bail for K1,000 and that his guarantors pay K500 each as surety fees.
Justice Koeget imposed that Dikana report to the National Court registry every Monday between 9.30am and 3.30pm, not leave his village without the leave of the National Court, not interfere with possible witnesses, not cause disturbance in his community and not to consume alcohol or any illicit drug while on bail.
Dikana’s other grounds included:

  • THE alleged concealed items had been taken to Australia with no indication of them being returned, thus, he could not do anything to interfere with those items;
  • HIS last child David Dikana was diagnosed with cerebral palsy since birth so he had to take him for treatment and counselling with nurses and doctors at the Port Moresby General Hospital;
  • HE had to take care of his father, who suffered a stroke in 2018, because he drove him for his monthly medical checks; and,
  • HE was the sole bread winner in his family and does maintenance work in his family business.

3 comments

  • Now the courts are at it again – disbursing mercy and leniency for bail to a law breaker using mitigating factors. I’ve said this before – its high time the courts reconsidered these mitigating factors on a case by case basis to verify if they are true and genuine for leniency. Some law breakers are smarter than the courts (magistrates/lawyers) – they know they will get away using these mitigating factors.

  • Judges are slowly but gradually eroding their conscience, look at some controversial judgements that gets turned down in appeals, vey embarrassing.

  • Next thing you will hear is that the judge or magistrate dismissed the case due to all those “made-up” mitigating factors. Where are we headed?

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