By the time you’re reading this article, the Director of Public Prosecutions [DPP], Ronald Bei Talasasa jnr, will have been in Australia a few days, on a recruiting mission to interview “advisors” for his Office. The man who continues to evade answering glaring questions about his handling of the case involving Australian resident, Carol Edwards, was due to arrive in the eastern seaboard city of Brisbane last Friday.
Last week, he threatened to sue a number of people including myself for criminal damage. If it’s on the grounds that he failed miserably to protect the Constitution and indeed uphold the law on behalf of the people of Solomon Islands, then I certainly agree. Anything else is no more than a toothless tiger using the brand name and authority the office embraces, to intimidate those who cannot defend themselves.
Sadly, the stance by Police Commissioner, Peter Marshall, the other line of public defence in the rule of law, offers little hope. His statement to the media last week offers no comfort for those who felt they have been unfairly dealt with. While on one hand he reportedly made a rebuttal, on the other, he confirmed that a criminal investigation division officer was reviewing Carol Edwards’ case, categorizing it a high profile case.
I wish to make it clear that my pursuit of the case is about one thing and one thing alone: fair and equal justice for all. For in the cause of my investigation, there are matters I have discovered that stood out like a sore tooth.
In a nutshell, justice was never administered fairly and equally, particularly for families of victims.
The most obvious is the family of Shane Snyder, the young man who lost his life in the early morning traffic accident opposite Fishing Village in Honiara in September 2006. Police believe Ms Edwards was the driver of the vehicle involved in the accident.
Police had never ordered a post-mortem in their initial investigation. Nor was there a mention of the word fatality in the prosecution case when Ms Edwards fronted the Magistrates Court two days after the accident. She was charged with allowing her vehicle to be driven by someone without a licence.
It was only after Magistrate Esther Lelepitu had pronounced a $100 fine verdict that the prosecution had written in with a ballpoint pen, the word fatality. This is called tampering with a court document. It is a very, very serious offence. This act alone invites the most vigorous of efforts to get to the bottom of this because it smelled of a deliberate, premeditated action on the part of the prosecution to pervert the course of natural justice.
The certificate of conviction is the proof of this premeditated action. The word fatality was never on the certificate. The officers responsible should be charged.
If this very act alone does not ring alarm bells with Mr. DPP, who is perhaps still busy getting into his white robe to come down from the clouds of doubt, then I don’t know what would.
Secondly, why did police release a vehicle of interest only a day after the accident for panel beating, knowing full well important evidence would be tampered with?
Thirdly, why was evidence given by Lynn Baura’s husband who told a female police officer that his wife had nothing to do with the accident, treated by the DPP as hearsay? Fourthly, is it true that Lynn was actually with her husband, traveling in a different vehicle on the night of the fatal accident? And that there were two other people, one of whom had recently given evidence to police to this fact?
Fifthly, is it true that Ms Carol Edwards made a telephone call shortly after the accident and had actually spoken to someone who’s in the same vehicle as Ms Baura and her husband? I have cited the Telekom phone records that night and there indeed a telephone call was made from a mobile phone owned by Carol Edwards.
Sixthly, why did police ignore crucial evidence provided by witnesses? For example, the eyewitness account provided by security guards at Kitano Mendana Hotel that morning that Lynn Baura was never in the vehicle of interest when two people alighted from it that morning? That evidence was supported by anecdotal or circumstantial evidence provided by a taxi driver who followed the vehicle from opposite the National Referral Hospital to the Central Bank roundabout before he left the vehicle when it turned into the Mendana that morning?
Seventh, how serious is an accident involving death? If it’s very serious and the various statutes we have say it is, then why was Ms Edwards released without any bail condition after her arrest in Honiara last October, charged with manslaughter? Others would have been slapped with very harsh conditions, including surrendering of passport, reporting to police on a regular basis and so on until police have completed their investigation and the matter is cleared by the court.
The mere absence of any bail conditions simply raises more questions than answers.
The decision on 6th December last year to withdraw the case altogether is no more than act of lunacy in the administration of what is supposed to be fair and equal justice. There was not even an explanation by the DPP who ordered the case be nolled.
It is mind boggling to say the least. For in essence it has reduced fair justice for all to just fair justice for some. Why?
The more I think about this, the more inclined I am to conclude that something is seriously amiss. On Thursday last week, I believe, I may have found part of the answer.
In its front page, Queensland’s Courier Mail newspaper had this screamer headline for its lead story: “Failed by the Force”.
The story is about a young Palm Island man in far north Queensland, named Cameron Francis Doomadgee, also known by his tribal name, Mulrunji, who died in police custody in 2004. It was alleged he died from severe beatings received at the hands of the police.
It says that an independent investigation by the Crime and Misconduct Commission [CMC] has uncovered a culture of protection within the police force of Queensland.
The CMC has accused top Queensland police of “protecting their own while investigating the Mulrunji death in custody”.
“A soon-to-be released CMC report is understood to recommend at least seven serving officers face official misconduct charges and disciplinary action over the police handling of the 2004 Palm Island death,” the Courier Mail report says.
It says the CMC report claims “the people of Palm Island, the wider indigenous community and the public generally have been let down. And it is set to be particularly critical of the apparent failure of investigating officers to be seen as impartial”.
The long-awaited CMC report is due to be released after the Deputy Chief Magistrate Brian Hine hands down the finding of a third coronial inquest into the death of Cameron Doomadgee, this week.
“The report is set to attack police double standards and the apparent culture of police protecting other police”.
Queensland police commissioner Bob Atkinson reportedly will be asked to act on the report immediately “to restore public trust in the police service – opening the way for a royal commission. The Courier Mail said the “harshest criticism” is reserved for officers who headed the investigation into police.
Can you see the parallel, the similarity in Carol Edwards’ case? – how a police officer who was never authorized, was off duty at the time but became the first police officer to be on the scene of the accident around 4am that September day in 2006? Who called him? Was it George Keso, now a security mind for Honiara Casino operator and West Honiara constituency candidate, Namson?
Can you see how this known police officer even ignored an order by superior by handing back Ms Edwards’ passport in the initial investigation? Who was calling the shots here – police, criminals or who? Or was it a coincidence?
The Carol Edwards’ case calls for a royal commission to get to the bottom of this and the role the DPP had played in the whole sorry saga. The handling of the Carol Edwards’ case has left the public mystified, suspicious and angry. If they were left with little or no faith at all in their judicial system, it is no fault of their own.
But there’s some good news. It seems the DPP is now on the way to humility. I’ve been reliably informed that he had recently asked his Uniting Church congregation in Honiara to allow him “to keep his job as Superintendent of Sunday School, despite what you see in the Solomon Star.” That’s a good sign.
Let’s see the DPP lead the way in reopening the Carol Edwards’ case. You have nothing to lose, but much to gain in terms of respect. Doing nothing at all about it simply leaves the DPP in the “just one of them” mould that allows the status quo to continue.
By Alfred Sasako
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