Man pleads not guilty to charges

A-39-year-old man accused of carrying marijuana in his backpack when checking in at Lae’s Nadzab Airport to board a plane to Kavieng in New Ireland, pleaded not guilty to being in possession of marijuana.
Simon Dolly, from Pangia in Southern Highlands, appeared before Lae District Court magistrate Stanley Bino charged with being in possession of 1.5kg of marijuana.
Dolly told the court that the drug was not his and that he had two other parcels in the plane.
He also told the court that he had no knowledge of the backpack since he was already in the plane when airport security guards went to him and assaulted him.
Bino then entered a not guilty plea and ordered the police prosecutor to call in the security guards at the airport to appear in court to identify the accused and verify his statement.