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Post Courier
Fri, 12 Mar 2010
PORT MORESBY, PNG ----- Papua New Guinea (PNG) Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare has been accused of sending a “veiled threat” - a message to the Police Commissioner Gari Baki to ignore the Ombudsman Commission’s final report on the Moti Affair.
Opposition Leader Sir Mekere Morauta said the Prime Minister issued a public statement attacking the report and describing it as “sinister, lacking objectivity, unfair and based on hearsay”.
Sir Michael particularly objected to the report’s recommendation that the Police Commissioner further investigate him under the Criminal Code.
“It is astonishing that after 42 years as a parliamentarian, as a law-maker, as a Minister and Prime Minister, Michael Somare does not seem to understand the laws of our country. Nor does he seem to understand the fact that despite being Prime Minister, he is still subject to the law,” Sir Mekere said.
“He asks what laws he has broken, what offences he has committed, that he might be prosecuted? “The fact that he asks these questions, publicly, demonstrates either gross arrogance, or complete lack of understanding of the law and of his role and responsibility as the Prime Minister, or both.
“His public statement on the matter is not only arrogant and shallow, it is improper: improper in the sense that it could be seen as a veiled threat, as sending a message to the Police Commissioner to ignore the recommendations of the Ombudsman Commission. That is wrong; it is improper; it is an abuse of position.”
Sir Mekere said the laws the Prime Minister broke as confirmed by both the Defence Board of Inquiry and the Ombudsman Commission
By ordering the Casa flight without following the legal and procedural requirements for such an operation, the action of the Prime Minister might be deemed as a breach of the Leadership Code. “In addition to the laws that were broken, other offences may be deemed to have been committed by the Prime Minister and others who gave the fugitive Moti the opportunity to escape the country while the matter was before the court
“The Prime Minister cannot escape the fact that he is responsible for this saga of large-scale, serious law-breaking,” Sir Mekere said.
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