Ex police boss Geoffrey Vaki facing 3 years prison
03 July 2015
NEWS LIMITED
PAPUA New Guinea's ex police chief Geoffrey Vaki has been sentenced to three years in prison after being found guilty of contempt for failing to arrest prime minister Peter O’Neill during a long running corruption probe.
Former police commissioner Vaki is expected to be soon taken into custody.
In June a court found Vaki guilty of contempt for failing to execute a district court arrest warrant issued last year for Mr O'Neill, and for later telling media any decision to arrest him was "a long way down the road".
Task Force Sweep chairman Sam Koim, who was in court today, told AAP the sentencing vindicated the court's authority.
"To my knowledge, three years is the highest penalty for contempt ever in this jurisdiction. This is how serious the court has treated the police commissioner's refusal to execute the warrant of arrest on (the prime minister)," he said.
"It is sending a strong message that all persons must observe the terms of the order."
Mr Vaki is expected to launch an appeal.
A police spokesman said he was aware of the verdict but was waiting for confirmation from the court.
The warrant for Mr O'Neill's arrest was obtained in June last year by fraud investigators who wanted to grill the prime minister over allegations he authorised the siphoning of millions of dollars in public cash to a law firm, a claim Mr O'Neill denies.
This is what I like to call "job prostitution". You are prostituted for money that's why you cannot freely do the job as required as you might lose the opportunity.
Posted by: Felix Baraka | 08 July 2015 at 09:05 AM
My good friend Lindsay! As a member of the Crocodile Organising Committee in PNG, I am extremely disappointed with your contributions to serious discourses so far on this blog.
In particular your feedback to many of the articles.
You need to wake up from your "drunken stupor" and smell the coffee.
You are making a mockery of the many serious and genuine writers who contribute to this blog and also participate in the Croc Prize who are productively writing and contributing to the development of writing and literature in this country.
If your goal is to be heard and understood, please why not try simpler ways of communicating with the rest of us? Is it not hard to do?
If your goal is offering constructive and objective feedback, try revisit the comments and feedback by Sil Bolkin, Leonard Fong,Michael Dom, Francis Nii, Phil Fitzpatrick, Peter Kranz, Barbara Short, Corney Alone, and many many others.
You are likely to pick up one or two pointers from them.
Please resist this temptation, and try to be heard next time.
Posted by: John Kaupa Kamasua | 04 July 2015 at 12:24 PM
Lesson strengthens, not lessens, nation’s loyalty notions.
Posted by: Lindsay F Bond | 04 July 2015 at 09:57 AM
PNG wants people who can uphold the integrity of the state institutions and decorum primarily for pubic good.
Anybody who cannot do that should say no at the first place.
It's water under the bridge now; all that remains is regret.
Sori tumas.
Posted by: Kela Kapkora Sil Bolkin | 03 July 2015 at 11:00 PM
Who should be next?
Posted by: Mathias Kin | 03 July 2015 at 09:55 PM
Send him off to where he belongs.
Posted by: Kela Kapkora Sil Bolkin | 03 July 2015 at 07:43 PM