Former Papuan president accused of perjury during loan probe

Papua New Guinea police indicted former Prime Minister Peter O’Neill on Monday. three perjury, punishable by jailIt was alleged that he lied in his statement regarding the investigation into a millionaire’s loan to the country during his government. “Three charges for saying I lied under oath,” O’Neill said while defending his innocence as he exited the Port Moresby police station, the Post Courier has learned. A commission created by the current government in 2020 recommended was due to prosecute the former president last March for “providing false evidence” During the investigation of a $1,200 million (1,116 million euro) loan granted in 2014 to the O’Neill government, which ruled the country from 2011 to 2019.

The commission, which presented its final report to the parliament in March, O’Neill was “primarily responsible” that the loan has “no satisfactory justification or basis”. The charges came to light after Police Commissioner David Manning called the former president to testify on Saturday, believing there was “sufficient evidence” that he had perjured before the commission.

Loan issued by the Australian subsidiary of Union Bank of Switzerland (USB), bought ten percent of the shares of oil and gas exploration company Oil Search, according to Australian public broadcaster ABC. He reported that the sale of shares in the hydrocarbon company, the most important company in the industry in Papua New Guinea, in 2017 caused a loss of approximately $230 million (€213 million) to Papua’s coffers.

O’Neill resigned in May 2019 after a series of incidents. asylum in his government and the threat of a motion Confidence arising from the signing of a controversial agreement with French oil companies Total and the American ExxonMobil to operate a gas field. Papua New Guinea, a poor South Pacific nation of nine million people with a long history of corruption, is rich in natural resources, including vast gas reserves.

Source: Informacion

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