“MAKE use of every single opportunity to increase your practical knowledge of the job that you do.”
These were the words of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP,) Ronald Bei Talasasa when addressing participants of extradition and mutual legal assistance workshop that started yesterday at the Mendana Hotel conference room.
He said, this message is also for the entire public service in Solomon Islands.
“Be a person who unselfishly yearns for more knowledge.
“So you may perform your duties beyond measure.”
He said their participation in the workshop is crucial for them and the organisations they represent.
Mr Talasasa said, extradition is the best known and certainly the oldest component of international cooperation in criminal matters.
“It is a concept which originated in ancient societies such as the Egyptian, Chinese, Chaldean, and Assyro-Babylonian.
“Just as it was relevant and appropriate in those times, particularly in the time of Ramses II, Pharaoh of Egypt, who signed the peace treaty with the Hittites for the return of persons sought by each sovereign, who had taken refuge on the other’s territory, so it is today,” Mr Talasasa said.
The three days workshops that started yesterday was attended by Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions, Police Prosecutions, Royal Solomon Islands Police Force, Attorney General’s Chamber and the Solomon Island Intelligence Unit.
It was fully funded and also facilitated by the Attorney General’s (AG’s) Department in Canberra.
Caroline Scott and Perry Ryan from the AG’s Department in Canberra are facilitating the workshop.
He said it is compulsory for his staff to attend the workshop but they have extended the invitation to the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force (RSIPF) and other law enforcement agencies as well.
The workshop initiative came about when Mr Talasasa the 32nd Pacific Islands Law Officers Network (PILON) in November 2013 in Tonga.
He said prior to the PILON, they attended the workshop on extradition.
He said, it was from that experience that he sought the views of the facilitators if the same could be accorded to the Solomon Islands.
Mr Talasasa said his request was accepted in 2014, but they reckoned that the relevant topic for his office at the time was on policy.
Drafting and so in 2014 the AG’s Department in Canberra funded the workshop on Policy Drafting and Extradition be covered at a later time.
The workshop continued today.
By ASSUMPTA BUCHANAN
