Three police officers were arrested late last month and charged concerning the death of a man in Manus on April 17 this year.
The Commander of New Guinea Island Region Assistant Commissioner of Police  Perou Ndranou, confirmed that the three officers had been charged with murder and suspended from active police duties.
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ACP Ndranou also added that investigations are ongoing and more arrests are expected in connection with the death. He said officers who step out of line and use excessive force against unarmed people will be dealt with accordingly. He said common sense should be used before using the necessary force when arresting suspects. – The arrested suspects have nothing to do with us,  if you think they committed a crime, are about to commit or are committing a crime, we must use reasonable force to take them to the police station and deal with them. Assaulting or insulting them only gets us into trouble, added Ndranou, and this is what happened to these three officers and others.
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He further added that according to the police statement, the deceased  George Mandrau was with two other friends, Glen Wangisa and Gilla Ponau, who left Kapou village on their way to Lorangau town. He said they were walking a short distance towards Lorengau when the officers approached them. The police caught them and suspected that they were involved in an earlier robbery. They were taken to the Lorengau police station, where the police allegedly assaulted the trio with hard objects, after which they were detained in a cell. The deceased suffered serious bodily injuries while in the cell, so the detainees called the duty officers to take him to the hospital due to his condition.
He was taken to Lorengau Hospital and hospitalized and later died.
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 ACP Ndranou further added that a public complaint was lodged against the police officers and a team was flown to Manus from Port Moresby. The officers from the Forensic and Internal Investigation Unit of Port Moresby arrived in Manus and conducted an autopsy on May 09. He said an investigation had been launched into the April 17 death, which led to the arrest of three police officers last month. He further added that the two people accompanying the deceased were taken out of the police cell and ordered to forcibly board a boat and travel to Madang and stay there for five years after the investigation into the death of Madaru Jr.
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 “The case is also under investigation and those involved will be arrested and charged. The two from Madang will be brought to assist in the investigation. I strongly condemned the actions of the police and assured the family of the deceased that the police would work diligently to ensure that justice is served. Otherwise, the police officers had been dealt with administratively,» added Ndranou.