Thursday - June 16, 2011

Murder At Government House

Police on Thursday were preparing to charge the son of Papua New Guinea’s acting prime minister with murder after the body of a 29-year-old waitress was found at the family home.

Theo Abal, 21, will likely make his first court appearance Friday once he is charged in the killing of the woman, police spokesman Dominic Kakas said. He could face the death penalty if convicted.

A guard at the house told police he saw Abal and the woman arrive home in the early hours of Monday and head for a garden on the premises. Police said that the guard later heard the woman scream and that Abal confessed to killing her.

Kakas said her throat had been cut. A kitchen knife found near her body was the suspected weapon, he said.

Acting Prime Minister Sam Abal said he personally reported the “alleged murder” to Police Commissioner Tony Wagambie on Monday after the woman’s body was found at his home in the capital, Port Moresby.

He made no comment on his son’s alleged confession but pledged to cooperate fully. He said in a statement Tuesday that if any of his relatives are involved, “they will face the full brunt of the law and will not be treated differently from anyone else.”

… the island nation has had the death penalty for only a few years and has yet to carry out an execution, though a handful of defendants have been sentenced to death.

Theo Abal, the younger of Sam Abal’s two children, is unemployed and lives at his father’s house.

Kakas said the dead woman worked as a waitress at a Port Moresby hotel. Her name has not been made public.

Wagambie said Tuesday that the acting prime minister was away from the house and was alerted to the death by the security guard, who found the woman’s body in a banana garden.

Sam Abal - who is acting Prime Minister while Sir Michael Somare recovers from heart surgery - said on Tuesday that an ‘’unfortunate and regrettable incident’’ had taken place at the family’s Port Moresby home at the weekend. ABC radio reported yesterday that Teo Abal had been arrested. He had been missing since the body was found.

Mr Abal told the PNG Parliament on Tuesday that his family would co-operate with police to ensure justice was done.

‘’The alleged murder took place within the perimeters of my private home,’’ Mr Abal said in the Post Courier on Tuesday. Mr Abal had recently moved to a hotel and was not living at the Konedobu address, the newspaper said.
...
‘’We will not interfere in this case. If any of my family members are involved, they will face the full brunt of the law and will not be treated differently as anyone else in similar situations,’’ Mr Abal said.
‘’Anyone found to be involved will face the full consequences of the law. They will be charged with murder in the same way as any other person in society that has no regard for value of human life and dignity of a person,’’ he added.

Boy is it easy to draw inferences from this one. But let’s not be hasty. Papua New Guinea has been the target of Christian missionaries for a very long time, to the point where only a third of the population still follows the indigenous beliefs (former headhunters). Islam barely even has a toehold, making up less than 1% of the population. I think what we have here may be a case of a spoiled rich kid who wasn’t going to take a NO from a commoner.

[ from May 12 ] Papua New Guinea’s absent prime minister, Sir Michael Somare, has had heart-valve replacement surgery in Singapore, the PNG parliament has been told.

Three weeks after Sir Michael stepped down and handed the reins to deputy Sam Abal, it is still not known when he will return to work. Sir Michael is recovering in Singapore following corrective surgery after an earlier, operation on his heart, the Port Moresby-based Post Courier newspaper reported on Thursday.

The acting prime minister, Mr Abal, briefed parliament on Sir Michael’s condition.

“The people of Papua New Guinea have been praying for our prime minister since he was admitted into hospital for surgery last month,” Mr Abal was quoted as saying. “The surgery was successful but Sir Michael developed some complications in the post-operative period that required corrective surgery. Consequently, corrective surgery has taken place and Sir Michael is in recovery.”

Sir Michael was expected to return to the office on April 18 following a two-week suspension after he was found guilty of financial misconduct dating back 20 years.

I don’t know what the financial misconduct was, but I think it’s cool that the country gave their leader a big old Time Out for being a bad boy.

Posted by Drew458     on 06/16/2011 at 09:33 AM   
Filed Under: • Crime • International •  
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