Prime Minister Peter O'neill withdraws court proceedings

Prime Minister Peter O'neill withdraws court proceedings.

PRIME Minister Peter O’Neill has instructed his lawyers to withdraw all court proceedings, including appeals, to let government agencies do their job in verifying legal bills paid to Paraka Lawyers.

"I have always made myself available and I will answer questions that proper investigators put to me and I stand ready to do that," Mr O’Neill said when announcing this yesterday.

"That is why after considering all the events of the past two weeks, I have instructed my lawyers to withdraw all the legal proceedings including the appeals that they have initiated on my behalf because I want to respect the decisions of the courts that the powers continue to lie with the Commissioner of Police.

"I will respect that the Commissioner of Police be allowed to do his job and that our only request is that we will subject ourselves to an interview or provide statements as and when it is required by him and through an independent process of which investigators have an objective mind to these investigations."

He said the State and other parties involved can pursue the matters in court or elsewhere to protect the offices and agencies of government which is the Attorney General’s office and police.

"I know they will consider their own cases on their own merits so mine I say it will be withdrawn so I can subject myself to request if the Police Commissioner wants me to appear before him or a team of investigators.

"I have not made this decision lightly because I think that it is important that we protect the office of the Prime Minister because we don’t want to subject future Prime Ministers to this kind of ridicule where a letter which is under dispute or under scrutiny is used to undermine the office of the Prime Minister and the government of the day.

"I see that there is a gross interference in the investigation process and it is becoming more and more evident that apart from political interference there is continued interference from foreign interests given that the government has been making some very tough decisions in the recent months including decisions like the ownership of resources by our own people.

"At no stage have I tried to avoid being held accountable for my actions as Prime Minister since assuming office in August 2011.

"I have made it very clear in public that this particular letter which has been the basis of which the accusations have been made against me did not originate from my office and I stand by that.

"Every correspondence since 2011, incoming or going out, has been clearly recorded through a register in my office, after all these years, the only one that is missing from that registry is this particular letter, so it is clear that this letter did not originate from my office and we stand by that. There has been extensive investigation by task force sweep and they too confirmed that letter did not originate from my office."

Mr O’Neill’s decision also comes after the Supreme Court decision last Friday that legal fees paid to Paraka Lawyers are legal and the only payment that was stopped was the K6.4 million that was disputed in this case.

"So the Friday decision by the Supreme Court is also very clear, therefore with all these new information, it is important that we allow the offices of government to independently carry out their work, the police and Attorney General’s office, to independently verify many of these payments," the Prime Minister said.

PNG Today/Post Courier