By rnz.co.nz
A former Papua New Guinea prime minister Peter O’Neill has been charged with three counts of giving false evidence at a commission of inquiry into a $US1.2 billion loan acquired in 2014 by his then government.
The inquiry in 2020 was investigating whether the country’s leaders broke the law in approving the loan from Swiss bank UBS.
The Post Courier reports police spoke to O’Neill at Kone Police Headquarters in Port Moresby.
Hundreds of disgruntled supporters and friends of the Lalibu-Pangia MP gathered in front of the building.
O’Neill has since been released.
He told reporters outside the police station that the charges are all part of a game by his political opponents to intimidate him.
“As far as I know that I did not mislead the commission of inquiry, but we will test this in court,” ONeill said.
“It is only in regard to those statements, the three counts of a charge, saying that I have lied under oath.”
“They believed my political opponents and other people who went and made statements in the commission of inquiry.”
He was released after being interviewed at the Boroko Police Station.
“This is all part of the game that they’re playing to try and intimidate me and harass me,” he told supporters outside the police station.
“But let me tell you that I am not going anywhere. I will be here. Nobody will intimidate me and nobody will shut me up.”
He added the police “acted professionally, despite much of the pressure coming from our political opponents”.
