Rabaul Queen case returns to court

THE Rabaul Queen ferry trial will return to the Kokopo National Court in March, with owner Peter Sharp and two others facing a charge of sending or taking an unseaworthy vessel out to sea.
The other two are Anthony Tsiau, the captain of the ferry during that ill-fated trip, and the company’s Kimbe branch manager, Grace Amen.
Kokopo public prosecutor Lukara Rangan appeared for the State earlier before Justice Terrence Higgins and applied for the later start because the State needed time to arrange resources.
The court granted the application and set the trial for two weeks from March 5.
Lawyer Philip Kaluwin appeared for Sharp and Tsiau then.
The venue for the trial is yet to be finalised as the cost of transporting a large number of witnesses has to be considered.
Rangan indicated that the State was yet to make an application for a different judge to hear the case.
Last July, Sharp and Tsiau were acquitted of 172 manslaughter charges following a no-case submission made by Sharp’s lawyer David Cooper and Tsiau’s lawyer Kaluwin.
The State did not pursue the manslaughter case against Amen.
The State had called up 130 witnesses and tendered 105 exhibits before it closed its case on the manslaughter charges.
The ferry with about 300 onboard sank off the Finschhafen coast in Morobe in February 2012.