Trying the Dead

A bizarre legal bid to prosecute a dead man has been thrown out by a judge today, who said the case resembled a famous Monty Python comedy sketch involving a dead parrot. The case of two Korean trawler officers accused of dumping fish at sea was called at Christchurch District Court today. But while the skipper of Oyang 77, Dae Jun Lee, appeared in the dock, his co-accused, 42-year-old Soon Ill Hwang, was not present as he died in a car crash in China after charges were laid against him earlier this year. But there are still a lot of living people to try, for instance, a Rotorua painter who admitted a charge of obtaining by deception after he was paid $400 for a paint job he did not do. The painter, whose name is Nicholas Russell Matenga, appeared before a Community Magistrate in the Rotorua District Court yesterday and pleaded guilty to a charge of obtaining NZ$400 by deception. According to the police summary of facts, Matenga walked into the Ranolf Bakery in December last year when the owner was preparing for the bakery's grand opening the next day. Matenga introduced himself to the owner and walked around the bakery, looking at the fresh paint work. He made comments implying the work had not been done properly and said he had over 25 years' experience. This is not the sort of decorator that I would want to hire for my home or anyone else. But there is one person I would've at least considered for any sort of work had she not been killed for wanting such a job. That's right, a man in Herat in western Afghanistan has confessed to stabbing his wife to death to prevent her from taking a job outside the home, police said today. Mohammad Anwar, who was arrested in the provincial capital for the murder, said he killed his wife during an argument over whether she should work at private company in the city, for which he should be executed, as should two parents from Pakistan who killed their teenage daughter just for looking at a boy riding past on a motorbike. The girl's parents, Mohammad Zafar and his wife Zaheen, recounted the October 29 incident from jail. The father said the girl had turned to look at a boy who drove by on a motorcycle, and he told her it was wrong. "She said 'I didn't do it on purpose. I won't look again.' By then I had already thrown the acid. It was her destiny to die this way," the girl's mother told the BBC in an interview.