Vietnamese yet to pay fines

 By ELIZABETH VUVU
TWO weeks after the Kavieng district court found them guilty for fishing illegally in the waters of New Ireland, 12 Vietnamese are still being held in jail at the Kavieng Correctional Service.
According to police in the province, the men will have to fork out a total of K155,000 in fines.
Failure to do so will result in them serving the respective jail times that the court has handed them.
Provincial police commander Chief Inspector John Midi confirmed yesterday that the men had not paid up their court fines and were still at the Kavieng jail.
“As we speak, the 12 men are still at the Kavieng jail serving their time,” Midi said.
Two weeks ago the district court found them guilty for illegally harvesting sea cucumber (bech-de-mer) in the waters of New Ireland.
Local authorities and senior police officers in the New Guinea Islands raised concern over foreigners breaching the PNG Customs, Immigrations and National Fisheries Authority laws, and poor surveillance that needed significant improvement.
The captain of the vessel was fined K40,000 in default three years in jail, the engineer was fined K15,000 in default 18 months in prison while the rest of the crew were fined K10, 000 each in default to six months imprisonment each.