2 Oct 2006

Solomon's new attorney general on run from PNG police

5:50 am on 2 October 2006

Solomon Islands' controversial new attorney-general remains on the run from police in Papua New Guinea.

Julian Moti, an Australian lawyer, is wanted by Australian authorities over an alleged child sex offence.

The AAP news agency says he was was arrested at Port Moresby's Airport on Friday off a flight from Singapore at the request of the Australian government.

But after being granted bail by a magistrate that night, he failed to appear in court on Saturday morning and absconded from his hotel before police could detain him.

Police initially thought he might have caught a commercial flight to Buka on the PNG island of Bougainville, adjacent to the Solomons.

But the authorities now think he is still in Port Moresby.