THE ELECTORAL Commissioner of Papua New Guinea Patilus Gamato was arrested and charged by Police on Friday 18th October 2019. Gamato was arrested by NCD Police after a warrant for his arrest was obtained from the court. Commander of NCD-Central Acting Assistant Commissioner Anthony Wagambie Jr said Gamato's arrest stems from on-going fraud investigations into a case of official corruption involving the Election Manager for the National Capital District Terence Hetinu in 2017. At that time Hetinu was arrested by Police monies totalling K184,300.00 in cash were recovered in his possession on the eve of the 2017 National General Elections. Gamato initially stated that the monies recovered from Hetinu were camping allowances for election officials - a claim Mr Wagambie said is now the subject of this ongoing investigation.
Mr Wagambie said detectives investigating the case obtained a warrant to have Mr Gamato arrested and charged so as to have him face court and explain the origins of the cash which was recovered by police. Mr Gamato was charged for one count of Official Corruption under section 87 (1) (a) (i)(ii) of the PNG Criminal Code Act, one count of money laundering under Section 508C (i) of the Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing (Amendment) Act 2015 and one count of conspiracy under section 515 of the PNG Criminal Code Act. The defendant was informed of his constitutional rights under section 42 sub-section 2 before he was detained to appear in court. Mr Wagambie said police bail was refused because the defendant was arrested by court warrant. However Mr Gamato is understood to have sought the assistance of a magistrate through his lawyer and was released from police custody on a K3,000 bail yesterday. Comments are closed.
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