The State v Siune Arnold

• Jurisdiction: Papua New Guinea
• Judge: Batari AJ
• Judgment Date: 21 November 1997
• Citation: (1997) N1658
• Court: National Court
• Year: 1997
• Judgement Number: N1658

National Court: Batari AJ

Judgment Delivered: 21 November 1997

N1658

PAPUA NEW GUINEA

[NATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE]

CR NO 676 OF 1997

THE STATE

-VS-

SIUNE ARNOLD

Kimbe

Batari AJ

13 November 1997

21 November 1997

CRIMINAL LAW — Sentence — Murder — Killing of suspected sorcerer — belief in sorcery established by evidence and inferences — Relevance as mitigating factor — Suspected sorcerer taken before funeral gathering — Beaten and strangulated — Nine years.

Cases Cited

Kwayawako v The State [1990] PNGLR, 6.

A/PP v Uname Aumane [1980] PNGLR, 510.

Secretary For Law v Ulao Amantasi [1975] PNGLR, 134

The accused was convicted of killing a suspected sorcerer. The following judgment was delivered on sentence.

Counsel

C. Sambua, for the State

R. Habuka, for the Accused

21 November 1997

BATARI AJ: The prisoner has been convicted of the murder of one Kawage Kua pursuant to s.300 of the Criminal Code Act. He will now be sentenced. The maximum penalty prescribed for this offence is life imprisonment.

The brief facts show that on 9 February, 1997 the prisoner had taken the deceased Kawage Kua forcefully to Kimbe Hospital with assistance from others so that the deceased would "give water" to his young sister. I infer the young girl was hospitalised following an illness and the presence of Kawage Kua at the hospital was to perform traditional healing on her. I infer also that the prisoner and his line believed Kawage Kua to be a sorcerer and that he was responsible for the girl's condition. She died on the evening of that day. On the early hours of 10 February, the next day the prisoner again brought Kawage Kua forcefully to his father's block at Kavui where the body of his sister was being mourned. Kawage Kua was brought before the gathering to sort out the cause of the girl's death and compensation payment. I think this was because he had been suspected as the sorcery killer. The prisoner said Kawage Kua admitted responsibility for the girl's death through sorcery in front of a huge crowd. Consequently he as subjected to vicious attack and suffered injuries from which he died.

The Medical Report concluded the deceased died from strangulation, as indicated by extensive superficial laceration encircling the neck. In the doctor's opinion, the injury was consistent with the back part of the body being laid against a solid surface like a tree, wall or ground while an object was pressed firmly onto and being pushed several times back and forth across the neck. The deceased also sustained lacerations to the back and crown of his head, regions of both ears, chest and posterior trunk and both thighs. He further suffered burn marks to his left arm afflicted by a hot object.

The facts present quite a bizarre instance of mob rule. Kawage Kua, a person who was under the Constitution innocent until proven guilty by a court of law was virtually arrested, detained, tried and executed, albeit unlawfully by his accusers.

The Constitution gives protection to every human life irrespective of gender, age, race or background. No-one, no-one whatever his cause might be has the right to kill another unlawfully. Except for the powers vested in the courts, no person or authority has the power to order a death sentence. It has been suggested a village court magistrate had urged the killing at the gathering in a believed sorcery powers of Kawage Kua which had caused the death of three other persons previously and they had been unable to pay compensation. The prisoner had sought this explanation on the attack and eventual death of Kawage Kua. I dismissed it as sufficiently improbable.

The deceased was brutally murdered. The evidence suggested he died a slow painful death. He was literally tortured to death. The prisoner and his line...