Justice not served in PNG refugee murder case - advocate

12:48 pm on 20 April 2016

Australia's Refugee Action Coalition says justice has not been served in the murder case of 23-year-old Iranian asylum seeker Reza Barati on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea.

This comes after PNG police said two men found guilty of his murder could spend as little as three more years in prison.

Two former workers at Australia's offshore detention centre on PNG's Manus Island, Joshua Kaluvia and Louie Efi, were sentenced yesterday to 10 years' jail, suspended after five years, for killing the Iranian man during a riot in February 2014.

The Manus Island Detention Centre in PNG

Staff accommodation block at Manus Island Detention Centre in PNG Photo: EMTV

PNG police said because of time already spent at Lorengau Jail on Manus Island, the two men would spend just over three further years in prison.

The Refugee Action Coalition's Ian Rintoul said the outcome of the murder case was disappointing but not surprising.

"There has not been a proper investigation into that. The people who were ultimately responsible the Australian government and the PNG government for putting Reza Berati in that detention centre for leaving them vulnerable to the outside attack. The cloud of the killing of Reza Berati will hang over any sense of justice as far as the Manus Island detention arrangements are concerned."