Men guilty for killing over drink

By DOROTHY MARK
THE Madang National Court found two men guilty of killing a man each in a fight over a can of Pepsi in Markham, Morobe, in 2016.
Judge David Cannings found Chris George Josh guilty of killing Peter Muruai and Livai Solomon guilty of killing Matia Raving.
The two were initially alleged to have been involved in the killing of 10 people but the court found them guilty of directly involved in the killing of a man each.
Josh and Solomon were arrested and charged at Ramu police station by Yonki-based policemen in 2016.
According to court information, four students at Markham Secondary School were drinking alcohol and had three cans of Pepsi and wanted one more so that each of them would have a can.
They asked a vendor to get one more on credit but the vendor refused since he did not know them.
An argument with the vendor turned into a fight and the students contacted their relatives in nearby villages and the small fight turned into a big ethnic clash.
According to the court, the incident occurred on April 26.
On April 28, hundreds of men from the Amari area in Markham mobilised and went to Zumim to hold peace talks so they could allow their students to go back to school but were met by the other faction called the Azara between Antiragen and Zumim.
Gun shots were fired at them and some people in the front line of the Amari were shot and killed while others were ambushed and that was when and where 10 people were killed.
In a 34-page judgment, the court said of the 10 people killed that day, the state had no evidence as to how eight had died, other than Muruai and Rabang, or who killed them.
It said the State failed to prove that by their participation in their tribe’s activities, two accused did acts for the purpose of enabling and aiding each other, or those who directly committed eight other offences (killing of eight people).
It said neither of the accused could be convicted under the criminal code of any offences other than the offence which was by virtue of direct evidence against them.
Josh and Solomon will appear in court next Thursday for sentencing.