Moves by Papua New Guinea police to serve an arrest warrant on the prime minister remain stayed despite a high profile conviction in a related case.
The former Police Commissioner of Papua New Guinea, Geoffrey Vaki. Photo: Dominic Kakas
The former police commissioner Geoffrey Vaki was yesterday convicted on contempt charges for his obstruction of the arrest warrant for Peter O'Neill a year ago.
Mr O'Neill was wanted for questioning over his role in allegedly illegal state payments worth US$29 million to a law firm.
The arrest warrant was obtained by the anti-corruption unit Taskforce Sweep whose chairman Sam Koim says the warrant is still active but cannot be executed while an application for judicial review by Mr O'Neill is pending.
"The decision by the national court, the chief justice, yesterday means that the arrest warrant is without defect and has been validly obtained and can be enforced, executed and who ever stands in the way can be prosecuted for contempt. But at the moment we can't do anything because we've got a pending stay order."
