Prosecutors accused of deals to dismiss cases

POLICE prosecutors have been making deals and receiving money from suspects and complainants, causing many dismissals in the district courts because of lack of evidence, an official says.
Prosecution director Chief Supt Jimmy Onopia said from 25 cases filed and presented in the district court, 20 were sorted and five dismissed because of lack of evidence and because the prosecution division had no management to look into it again to sort out the problem.
This has been going on, Onopia said.
He said there were also cases of officers being bribed by the accused to have cases dismissed.
“A new strategy to be created will have cases closely reviewed by a panel before they are presented to the court to avoid such practice,” Onopia said.
“Controversial cases like the burning of an Air Nuigini plane should have a critical discussion, all the files be put together and run through to make sure all the essential elements are documented before being presented to the court.” Onopia said their vision was to increase prosecution conviction effectively and reduce loss of cases.
He said many cases being dismissed were not questioned because the prosecution division had no management that was responsible for officers, checks and assessment of the reports they had filed.
“There should not be any cases of bribery involved when such processes are taken by the police authority,” he said. “We must not allow our citizens to suffer but let justice must be done.”
Meanwhile, Onopia said prosecution work had been neglected and ignored by higher authorities in the police department that was seeing many cases dismissed.
“We were not responsible and accountable for every police arrest and file coming into the office. We were not managing cases well,” he said.
Prosecutors throughout provinces were shattered and working in isolation because no proper directions were coming from the prosecution director’s office for several years.