Papua New Guinea's former chief justice, Sir Arnold...

Papua New Guinea's former chief justice, Sir Arnold Amet, said PNG courts were not competent to handle cases which might involved the death penalty. Sir Arnold told a seminar on the death penalty that cases were poorly investigated, adjudicated and tried, so it was not possible to be sure that correct judgements were reached. He said judges were stressed to the limit and the country's prosecuting officers, including the public prosecutor, the state solicitor and the police commissioner were ill-equipped. The whole justice system, he said, was inadequate to provide a response to the issue of the death penalty. The death penalty law had been on the books since 1991, but no-one had been executed.