Soldiers to stand trial over killing

By BEVERLY PETER
TWO soldiers accused of killing a policeman a year ago in Port Moresby were committed by the Waigani Committal Court to stand trial in the National Court.
Magistrate Paul Nii, when committing Supa James, 48, of Noure village in Chuave, Chimbu, and Richard Ule, 31, of Dirima village in Gumini, Chimbu, said evidence before the court was sufficient.
“The evidence provided by the police before this court is sufficient for this matter to go to the National Court,” he said.
“I refuse to accept the submission by James and Ule’s lawyer as it did not change the facts of the offence.”
Police alleged that between 2am and 3am on May 9, 2020, James and Ule were caught by police smuggling alcohol at Airport Transport Squadron (ATS).
At the time, police, including the victim as the commander of the team, were conducting a checkpoint at ATS under a State of Emergency order issued by the police hierarchy to control liquor in the nearby areas leading to the ATS settlement. There was a commotion when police attempted to stop James, Ule and their friends from smuggling beer and confiscated it.
The commotion then ended up in a fight between the policemen and soldiers.
Police alleged that injuries sustained by the victim at that time resulted in his death.
Magistrate Nii, after assessing the evidence, said the defence lawyer had raised some issues on how the police file was filed in this case.
“Things such as content page and page numbers are matters of practice to make a court file look proper for the court’s convenience,” he said. “Defence lawyer argued that there were two commotions that night but James and Ule were present at the second commotion and the injuries sustained by the victim were from the first commotion.
“I refuse to accept as whether the first or the second commotion. Both James and Ule were identified as being present at the commotion area.”
The matter was adjourned to next Wednesday for James and Ule to give their section 96 statements.