The State v Urari Siviri (2004) N2747

• Jurisdiction: Papua New Guinea
• Citation: (2004) N2747
• Date: 30 August 2004
• Court: National Court
• Year: 2004

Full Title: The State v Urari Siviri (2004) N2747

National Court: Batari J

Judgment Delivered: 30 August 2004

1 Criminal Law—Sentence—Wilful Murder—Sorcery killing—Belief in sorcery—Proof of—Reduction in seriousness of offence—Reduction from the death penalty.

2 Criminal Law—Sentence—Wilful Murder—Sorcery killing—Prevalence of—Victim beaten to death on precincts of church grounds in an area well permeated by government and mission influence—Community involvement—Prisoner as main perpetrator.

3 Criminal Law—Sentence—Wilful Murder—Sorcery killing—Mitigation—Extent of—Sentencing guide—Consideration of—Need to increase sentence—18 years appropriate.

4 Avia Aihi v The State (No 3) [1982] PNGLR 92, The State v Aiaka Karavea (1984) N452(M), The State v Boat Yokum (2002) N2337, Acting Public Prosecutor v Uname Aumane [1980] PNGLR 510, The State v Kwayawako [1988] PNGLR 174, Public Prosecutor v Apava Keru and Aia Moroi [1985] PNGLR 78, Lawrence Simbe v The State [1994] PNGLR 38, Agoara Kebo and Karunai Uraki v The State (1981) SC198, Kwayawako v The State [1990] PNGLR 6 referred to

SENTENCE

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Batari J: The prisoner has been found guilty and convicted of wilful murder under s299 of the Criminal Code. His offence carries the ultimate death penalty. A brief summary of the facts of the case are as follows.

The prisoner is the only one arrested and charged with a killing that was 'sanctioned' by the community in the belief that the deceased had caused the sudden death of his wife by sorcery. According to the prisoner's oral testimony, his wife had complaint of stomach–ache during the day of or about 10 December 2002 and upon admission to the hospital, she died on the same night. He testified that, before her death, she named the deceased woman, Komano Paul as the person responsible for her illness. The prisoner believed what his wife had told him because he then immediately told others in the village. In a public meeting held for that purpose, the killing of Paul so that she would be buried with the prisoner's wife, was decided. The meeting was held on 13 December 2002 on which day, burial of the prisoner's wife had been delayed for some 3 days, I think purposely to await the out–come of the public meeting on the future of the deceased.

Whether Paul was in fact a sorcerer and whether she killed the prisoner's wife or not, we'll never know because she was never given the opportunity to defend herself in courts of law. She is not here today to do that. She is dead. But one thing is clear about the allegations against the deceased and it is that, the prisoner believed what his wife had told him and he believed that the deceased was responsible for his wife's death through sorcery.

Immediately following the community consensus to eliminate the deceased, the prisoner, his two sons and other young men from the village set out in search of her. They located the deceased and dragged her to a Four Square Church pastor's house where they tied her hands and feet to an avocado tree and literally beat her to death with coffee sticks in the presence of others. The medical report described her injuries as follows:

"HEAD/NECK: Depressed fracture of the temporal bone of the skull, fracture of the nose bone, striated marks around the neck.

CHEST: Bruising generally

ABDOMEN: Normal

LIMBS: (i) hands striated around wrist joints.

(ii) fracture of the right leg."

These medical findings were contained in a report compiled by Dr Thomas Kubu, Senior Medical Officer In–charge of the Accident & Emergency Unit of Goroka Base Hospital. In his opinion, the deceased died from fractured skull and brain damage due to a blunt blow to the head.

It was a brutal killing carried out with great determination and in the most barbaric manner. The evidence also showed that her death was precipitated by shame and humiliation. Her captors first took her around the village, assaulting her at the same time before she was fastened to a tree and...