Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

PNG police confirm investigation underway into sex worker death

Posted at 03:03 on 14 May, 2009 UTC

Police in Papua New Guinea say an investigation is underway into the death of a woman believed to be a sex worker in Morobe Province’s Lae City.

The Post Courier reports that two sex workers and their pimp were confronted by a police patrol that, they claimed, beat them up for no apparent reason.

The attack is alleged to have happened between one and 1.30am near the Haus Tisa building on Second Street where sex workers normally wait for clients.

Lae city’s Metropolitan Commander Chief Superintendent Nema Mondiai says police picked up an unconscious woman and took her to the police station.

He says they noticed then that she wasn’t moving and so transported her to hospital where she was pronounced dead.

Superintendent Mondiai says he has no idea as to how the death occurred and is not aware of anyone else being injured.

But the Police Commissioner Gary Baki says if police are found to have been involved in any way they will be dealt with by the law and the police’s internal disciplinary process.