PAPUA NEW GUINEA – A lawyer representing Papua New Guinea’s police fraud squad says conditions around vetting “high profile” investigations is suspicious.

PNG’s police commissioner Gary Baki has allowed the fraud squad back into its office after he had the office closed for three weeks after a series of high-profile arrests by the squad last month.

Accusing fraud squad head Mathew Damaru and his colleagues of alleged procedural breaches, Mr Baki was asked by the national court to allow the squad to get back to work.

The squad has been directed to present all high-profile cases to a vetting committee before arrests can be made.

Mr Damaru’s lawyer McRonald Nale said the vetting committee condition was unconstitutional.

“Now you’re actually discriminating against citizens. The law should apply to everyone but now you say you have a vetting committee for high-profile (cases), so how do you define the word high-profile?”