Paraka case drama
The National, Friday May 23rd, 2014
By CHARLES MOI
A MAGISTRATE hearing lawyer Paul Paraka’s fraud-related charges has been taken off the case after the two were seen together in public, a court was told yesterday.
According to Waigani court magistrate Cosmas Bidar, someone saw magistrate Pinnison Pindipia being picked up by Paraka and reported the matter to the Attorney-General’s office.
The A-G then referred the matter to the Chief Magistrate to deal with.
Paraka is facing charges related to the payment of fees to his law firm by the Government.
Bidar said the office of the Chief Magistrate had directed that another magistrate replace Pindipia in hearing the case.
The matter came up yesterday when Bidar was dealing with a parallel case involving lawyer Harvey Nii who is facing similar charges as Paraka. The charges include stealing, conspiracy and money laundering.
Bidar said he was yet to confirm if another magistrate had been assigned to replace Pindipia.
Paraka had filed an application before Pindipia seeking certain orders from the Waigani Committal Court.
The court was to rule on Paraka’s application today but this has been stopped.
Bidar said other persons facing similar charges to Nii and Paraka had made similar applications in court.
The matter has been adjourned to June 4.