24 Sep 2002

26 Vanuatu police to stand trial on mutiny charges

10:29 am on 24 September 2002

26 Vanuatu police have been committed to stand trial in the Supreme Court on mutiny and related charges.

The officers, who include the leading commanders in the police and the mobile force, were charged earlier this month after a complaint from the Government over the arrests of 15 senior public officials on seditious conspiracy charges.

A Magistrate ruled on Friday that the officers had a case to answer.

They are next due in court on October the 1st when a trial date will be set.

The charges are the latest in a sequence of events following the controversial appointment of a new police commissioner - that appointment was later rescinded at the direction of a Supreme Court judge.