A DISABLED man has had his case dismissed for lack of police evidence by Popondetta district court on Tuesday.
Holland Oki in his 40s from Awala village along the Kokoda Highway is a person living with disability after he had a stroke back in 2017, which left the left side of the body completely paralyzed.
He was charged for defamatory publication under the Cyber Crime Act by police for what he described as the ‘truth’ he posted on his personal Facebook page wall, raising concerns regarding the public conduct of a policeman and his police wife (named).
Earlier last week, his wife, Jacklyn Oki came out publicly calling on the Police Commissioner David Manning to intervene in the case of her disabled husband.
Oki, although is now a free man, he is still recovering from police brutality after he was discharged by Popondetta General Hospital.
He confirmed that he will pursue the matter against the policemen.
Last week, family members confirmed he was arrested after this newspaper published online full details of the brutality he received from policemen in the province.
The wife said her husband was charged under the Cybercrime Act for his post and was thrown into the police cells for almost 19 days.
He was out on K300 police bail until his matter was dismissed.
Since the publication of this story, this newspaper has not received any response from the office of the Police Commissioner or the Internal Affairs in Port Moresby on the incident.
She is demanding that the policemen and woman who tormented her husband to face the full force of law as no one is above the law.
“Policemen arrived in the village after the Sunday Bulletin Newspaper published the police brutality story and they picked him up like a common criminal over a matter they alleged was nothing compared to the brutality they brought upon him.
These policemen forgot the very serious crimes they committed by forcing him to have sexual intercourse with another youth in their (policemen’s) custody while transporting him to Popondetta after they picked him up at Awala rural police station,” family members said.
The drunkard youth was picked up at Koipa village also along the Kokoda Highway.
The victim in his statement filed with police after he was discharged by the hospital (copy obtained) reported been blindfolded for refusing to have sexual intercourse with the youth who was forced to remove his clothes. The youth in fear of his life gave in to police orders.
However, the refusal by the victim to obey their orders resulted in him forced to lie on the ground and a policeman urinated on him while his other two policemen took turns hitting his paralyzed leg with stones until they completely fractured it.
He also submitted in his statement that these policemen used the barrel of their guns to push it into his anus whenever he tried to avoid the stones.
The victim was admitted to the hospital after other inmates in the police cell, alerted the duty officers when they found him heavily bleeding approximately over 12 hours after he was thrown into the cells.
This incident occurred on the 29th of November last year between 9pm – 2pm that night.
The policemen (all named) were called up from the Popondetta Police Station to pick the victim at the Awala and in the ploy to taking him to Popondetta to lock him up, drove straight into the oil palm trees at Sumbiripa Oil Palm Estate.
The victim in his statement said after he was left with complete fracture, they forced him to drag himself by climbing into the vehicle and drove him to Popondetta Police Station where they threw him into the police cells.
The policemen allegedly involved in this incident are still actively performing police duties in the province without any charges being laid on them although complaint was lodged at the Popondetta Police Station.