Salamo Injia

Sir Salamo Injia, GCL is a Papua New Guinean judge. Injia became Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Papua New Guinea in 2008, succeeding Mari Kapi.

He was knighted in 2006.

On 9 November 2011, Sir Salamo Injia was suspended from the position of Chief Justice by the government after allegations that he had breached a contempt order and mismanaged court finances. At the time, the Supreme Court was deciding on the constitutionality of the election of Peter O'Neill as Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea. In response, the Supreme Court ordered the arrest of O'Neill supporters, Deputy Prime Minister Belden Namah and Attorney-General Dr Allan Marat. The pair were briefly imprisoned.

In December 2011, Sir Salamo Injia was one of five judges who presided over the Supreme Court decision that ruled that Prime Minister O'Neill did not follow due constitutional process when he ousted former Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare on 2 August 2011. The government made numerous attempts to remove Injia from the Supreme Court case, citing a conflict of interest.

On 22 March 2012 Prime Minister O'Neill's administration introduced a new law, the Judicial Conduct Bill, empowering the government to suspend judges by referring them to a tribunal. The bill was passed by parliament, 24 hours after it was introduced. Opposition commentators have criticised the new law as being designed to remove Injia from the Supreme Court. Sir Barry Holloway, the former speaker of parliament, commented that while many had welcomed the ascension of the O'Neill government because of O'Neill's promised clampdown on corruption, O'Neill's on-going battle with the judiciary had "cost it a lot of the public goodwill it enjoyed when it first assumed power".

In May 2012, Injia and Justice Nicholas Kirriwom were arrested on charges of "sedition", having been part of a three-man bench who ruled that Somare is PNG's rightful leader. A police unit led by Deputy Prime Minister Belden Namah stormed the court in an attempt to arrest Injia. This has caused alarm with the Australian Bar Association, which has called on the government of PNG to reaffirm the independence of its nation's judges.

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