Probe deaths

 A INQUIRY ought to be established into the circumstances surrounding the shooting of bank robber and prison escapee, William Nanua Kapris and accomplice Raphael Walimini, relatives of Kapris said last night.

A spokesman and close relative Capt Joseph Kumasi refuted police reports that the duo had been killed in a shootout outside Port Moresby.

“We, as the relatives, do not condone or support any of the types of crime that he may have committed or his life in crime but we cannot accept the manner in which his life was taken from him,” Kumasi said.

 “All citizens are equal before the law. If William has offended the law, he has to account for it and he must be accorded the opportunity to do so.

“We would have accepted that he would have been apprehended accordingly and be brought back and charged for his crimes and the courts only can properly determine his punishment. 

“We do not believe anyone has exclusive authority to issue a ‘shoot to kill’ order.”

The family claim that eyewitness accounts confirm there was at no time a shoot out, that there is no evidence of an exchange of gunfire, that seven people were apprehended but Kapris and Walimini were separated and shot at point blank range all over their legs.

“Our position is that the late William Kapris and Walimini were brutally and outside the parameters of the law murdered by criminal policemen, CS and soldiers,” the family said in a statement.

“The nature of the brutality suffered by them clearly indictate that their human rights were violated beyond the bounds of imagination. No criminal, however violent, should attract such form and degree of violence or punishment.

“Parading their bodies along the main streets of Port Moresby after having killed them is a vicious attack on acceptable standards of moral decency and a dangerous proposition for our children.”

The family is calling for an official inquiry to establish the truth and to determine if the force used was proportionate to the offence of escaping from prison and whether the nature and degree of injuries sustained amounted to gross violation of their fundamental human rights to life.”

Kumasi said the family asked “if in the whole process of his apprehension up to his demise has his constitutional rights as a human being been violated? 

“Was there a criminal act involved in his apprehension up to his killing?” he asked.

“If so can the police identify and hold accountable the actions of those involved?”

He said the relatives did commend the efforts of other hardworking officers of police and CS but highlighting that only a few are tarnishing the efforts of the good ones and they should be identified and removed from the force immediately.

“We appeal that his killing is not to become another police statistic and be thrown under the carpet, it should be taken seriously.”