RULING on an appeal filed by the lawyer of the Member of Parliament (MP) for Northwest Guadalcanal Bodo Dettke against a magistrate’s decision in February will be delivered this afternoon.
Private lawyer Gabriel Suri who represents the MP had appealed the magistrate’s decision to dismiss the defence’s claims of abuse of process, compensation and cost after his client was acquitted of a traffic case in February.
Justice Maelyn Bird will deliver her ruling at 2pm this afternoon.
A magistrate who acquitted the MP of the traffic offences against him based on insufficient evidence had, however, dismissed the defence’s grounds of abuse of process and claim of compensation and cost.
Mr Suri had questioned why police initiated the charge when his client was the victim in the traffic incident.
He also submitted that that despite there not being any shred of evidence to suspect that his client had caused the traffic accident, it is a clear abuse of the criminal process.
Mr Suri further submitted that the charge served on his client was signed and issued by a Magistrate without any shred of evidence to suspect that it was his client who caused the traffic accident.
He also questioned whether the magistrate has considered the witness statement before signing the charge.
He further argued that if anyone is entitle to protection of the law, as guaranteed by the Constitution, it would mean that persons who are wrongly charged and wrongly prosecuted must be also entitled to seek redress from the court.
He said the charge against his client in this regard, is frivolous and vexatious, hence he must be paid reasonable compensation, which is to be assessed and costs of the criminal proceeding, pursuant to section 155 of the CPC.
But the magistrate however ruled that there were no evidence before the court why police initiated the charge when they knew the MP was a victim.
Magistrate Emily Zazariko Vagibule also ruled that a Magistrate is not obliged to assess the evidence of a particular case before making a decision to sign a formal charge.
Vagibule said argument is misleading and without basis.
She said the Magistrate’s Court does not have the power to stay proceedings based on abuse of process.
She also stated that the Magistrate’s Court does not have the jurisdiction to grant compensation and cost order, unlike the High Court.
By ASSUMPTA BUCHANAN
Newsroom, Honiara
