Transcript
LOANI HENAO: My client will be at the St Joseph's Catholic Church Presbytery. We are grateful to the Catholic Church for being the guarantor. Father St Francis Xavier of St Joseph's is the guarantor, we're very happy with him. The other condition is that my client must not leave Port Moresby and he must not commit any offence and that he attends the court.
BEN ROBINSON DRAWBRIDGE: Can you tell me how long has Loghman Sawari been kept in detention? It's been more than a week?
LH: About a week and a half.
BRD: And did he receive hospital treatment in that time?
LH: Yes he did. He spent two nights in the hospital to receive treatment and he was also attended upon by the psychiatrist and [he] prescribed some medication for him.
BRD: Perhaps you can tell me what he has been charged with?
LH: He has been charged with an offence under the PNG Passport Act - that he provided false information to the authorities for the purposes of obtaining a PNG passport. My instructions are that a person who claimed to be a passport agent, a Papua New Guinean, requested information from him and my client provided information similar to what he provided to the authorities in Manus for the purposes of a refugee visa to be given to him. As to how this PNG agent obtained the passport, and what information he used, that's something for the police authority to prove in court. As far as we're concerned, the information we gave to the PNG agent [was] truthful and was not falsified therefore we will definitely not be pleading guilty to the charge.
BRD: What sort of penalty does the charge carry?
LH: It's a jail term and a fine - I think up to 10,000 kina.
BRD: Has the court scheduled a trial?
LH: Yes, he will appear in court on Monday of next week to be arraigned. From there, the court will work out when his next appearance will be and whether the matter will proceed to trial at the next hearing - we will know that on Monday of next week.
BRD: Can you tell me about Loghman? How is he feeling? How is his health?
LH: He is very happy with the outcome this afternoon. His health appears to be good. The psychological part of it - that will be for the psychiatrist to comment on that but he's very happy that he's out of bail.
BRD: He seems a very brave young man and also a very intelligent young man so I hope that his spirit has not been diminished any by this ordeal?
LH: I'm amazed by him. When he came to PNG some three or four years ago, I'm informed that he knew little or no English at all. He speaks very good English [now] and would you believe he speaks good pidgin? And he tells me that he's a chef so I'm looking forward to him cooking some Iranian-style food which I hope I can enjoy sharing with him and his cousin and another friend from Iran, who are also refugees, and they are together right now in Port Moresby.
