PART III - ARREST OF OFFENDERS AND PREVENTION OF OFFENCES

11 Mode of making arrest

(1) In making an arrest the person making it shall actually touch or confine the body of the person to be arrested, unless there be a submission to the custody by word or action.

(2) A person may use such force as is reasonable in the circumstances in the prevention of crime or in effecting, or assisting in, the lawful arrest of offenders or suspected offenders or of persons unlawfully at large.

(3) The last preceding subsection shall replace the rules of the common law on the question when force used for a purpose mentioned in that subsection is justified by that purpose.

12 Entry to arrest person under warrant

For the purpose of arresting a person under a warrant of arrest, any person to whom such warrant is addressed may enter, if need be by force, and search any place where that person is or where he, with reasonable cause, suspects him to be.

PART III - ARREST OF OFFENDERS AND PREVENTION OF OFFENCES

15 Search of arrested persons

(1) Where a person is arrested by a police officer or a private person, the police officer making the arrest or to whom the private person makes over the person arrested may search such person and any articles in his possession or under his control and place in safe custody all articles found in his possession or under his control and any article found upon him, except necessary wearing apparel :

Provided that, whenever the person arrested can be legally admitted to bail and bail is furnished, such person shall not be searched unless there are reasonable grounds for believing that he has about his person any :
(a) stolen articles;
(b) instruments of violence ;
(c) tools connected with the kind of offence which he is alleged to have committed ; or
(d) other articles which may furnish evidence against him in regard to the offence which he is alleged to have committed.

(2) The right to search an arrested person does not include the right to examine his private person.

(3) Where any property has been taken from a person under this section and the person is not charged before any Court but is released on the ground that there is no sufficient reason to believe that he has committed any offence, any property so taken from him shall be restored to him.

(4) Whenever it is necessary to cause a woman or girl to be searched, the search shall be made only by another woman with strict regard to decency.

16 Power of police officer to detain and search persons, vehicles, vessels and aircraft in certain circumstances

(1) Any police officer who has reason to suspect that any article stolen or unlawfully obtained, or any article in respect of which a criminal offence has been, or is being or is about to be, committed, is being conveyed, whether on any person or in any vehicle, package or otherwise, or is concealed or carried on any person in a public place, or is concealed or contained in any vehicle or package in a public place, for the purpose of being conveyed, may without warrant detain and search any such person, vehicle or package and may take possession of and detain any such article which he may reasonably suspect to have been stolen or unlawfully obtained or in respect of which he may reasonably suspect that a criminal offence has been, is being or is about to be, committed, together with the package, if any, containing it, and may also detain the person conveying, concealing or carrying such article :

Provided that this subsection shall not extend to the case of postal matter in transit by post except where such postal matter has been, or is suspected of having been, dishonestly appropriated during such transit.

(2) Any police officer of or above the rank of sergeant may, if he has reason to suspect that there is on board any vessel or aircraft any property stolen or unlawfully obtained, enter without warrant, and with or without assistants, on board such vessel or aircraft and may remain on board for such reasonable time as he may deem expedient and may search with or without assistants any and every part of such vessel or aircraft and, after demand and refusal of keys, may break open any receptacle and, upon discovery of any property which he may reasonably suspect to have been stolen or unlawfully obtained, may take possession of and detain such property and may also detain any person in whose possession it is found. Such police officer may pursue and detain any person who is in the act of conveying any such property away from any such vessel or aircraft or who has landed with the property so conveyed away or found in his possession.

(3) Any police officer may, if he has reason to suspect that an offence has been committed, seize any articles which may be in a public place and which may furnish evidence in regard to the commission of that offence :

Provided that no articles may be seized under the provisions of this subsection unless there is a possibility of such articles being removed or dealt with in such a way as to prevent their being available as evidence.

(4) Any person detained under this section shall be dealt with under the provisions of section 21 of this Act.

17 Power to seize offensive weapons

Notwithstanding the provisions of section 15 of this Act, the police officer or other person making any arrest may take from the person arrested any instruments of violence which he has about his person and shall deliver all articles so taken to the magistrate or police officer before whom the police officer or other person making the arrest is required by law to bring or send the person arrested.

PART III - ARREST OF OFFENDERS AND PREVENTION OF OFFENCES

18 Refusal to give name and residence

(1) Where any person who in the presence of a police officer has committed or has been accused of committing a non-cognisable offence refuses on the demand of such police officer to give his name and residence, or gives a name and residence which such police officer, with reasonable cause, suspects to be false, he may be arrested by that police officer, or any other police officer, in order that his name and residence may be ascertained or verified.

(2) When the true name and residence of a person arrested under the provisions of the last preceding subsection have been ascertained he shall be released on his executing a recognizance, with or without sureties, for a reasonable amount to attend before the District Court at a time and place to be named in the recognizance :

Provided that if such person is not normally resident in Nauru the recognizance shall be secured by a surety or sureties normally resident in Nauru or by the deposit of a sum of money sufficient to satisfy any penalty which may be payable upon forfeiture of the recognizance.

(3) Where the true name and residence of any person arrested under the provisions of this section have not been ascertained within twenty-four hours from the time of arrest, or if he fails to execute the recognizance or, if so required, to furnish sufficient sureties or toor to deposit the proper sum of money, he shall forthwith be brought before a magistrate.

PART IV - PROVISIONS RELATING TO CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS

64 Form, contents and duration of warrant of arrest

(1) Every warrant of arrest issued under this Part of this Act shall be signed by the magistrate issuing it and bear the seal of the District Court.

(2) Every such warrant shall state shortly the offence with which the person against whom it is issued is charged and shall name or otherwise describe him ; and it shall order the person or persons to whom it is directed to arrest him and bring him before the District Court to answer to the charge therein mentioned and to be further dealt with according to law.

(3) very such warrant shall remain in force until it is executed or until it is cancelled by the District Court.

PART IV - PROVISIONS RELATING TO CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS

68 Person arrested to be brought before the Court without delay

A person arrested under a warrant of arrest shall, subject to the provisions of section 65 of this Act, be brought without unnecessary delay before the District Court.

PART IV - PROVISIONS RELATING TO CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS

73 Power of court to order prisoner to be brought before it

(1) Where any person for whose attendance or arrest a magistrate is empowered to issue a summons or warrant is confined in the prison, a magistrate may issue an order to the Superintendent of the prison requiring him to bring that person in proper custody before the District Court at a time to be named in the order and, where that person is committed for trial to the Supreme Court, the Registrar may issue an order similarly for him to be brought before the Supreme Court.

(2) The Superintendent of the prison shall, on receipt of an order made under this section, act in accordance therewith and shall provide for the safe custody of the prisoner during his absence from the prison for that purpose.

PART IV - PROVISIONS RELATING TO CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS

100 Power to summon material witnesses and examine persons present

(1) Any Court may at any stage of any proceeding under this Act, of its own motion or on the application of any party, summon any person as a witness, or examine any person in attendance though not summoned as a witness, or recall and re-examine any person already examined, and the Court shall, unless the circumstances make it impossible to do so, summon and examine or recall and re-examine any such person if his evidence, or further evidence, appears to it essential to the just decision of the case :

Provided that the prosecutor, or the barrister and solicitor or pleader, if any, for the prosecution, and the accused, or his barrister and solicitor or pleader, if any, shall have the right to cross-examine any such person, and the Court shall adjourn the case for such time, if any, as it thinks necessary to enable such cross-examination to be adequately prepared if, in its opinion, either party may be prejudiced by the calling of any such person as a witness.

(2) The provisions of section 49 of the Courts Act 1972 shall apply mutatis mutandis in respect of any person who fails to attend before any Court in obedience to a summons issued under the preceding subsection as though that summons had been issued under section 48 of the said Courts Act.

101 Evidence to be given on oath or affirmation

Every witness in a criminal cause or matter shall be examined upon oath or affirmation, and the Court before which any witness attends shall have full power and authority to administer the usual oath or affirmation :

Provided that the Court may at any time, if it thinks it just and expedient for reasons to be recorded in the proceedings, take without oath or affirmation the evidence of any person who by reason of immature age ought not, in the opinion of the Court, to be admitted to give evidence on oath or affirmation ; the fact of the evidence having been so taken shall be recorded in the proceedings.

102 Refractory witnesses

Any person who, attending either in obedience to a summons or by virtue of a warrant, or being present in court and being verbally required by the Court to give evidence :

(a) refuses to be sworn or affirmed ;
(b) having been sworn or affirmed, refuses to answer any question properly put to him ; or
(c) refuses or neglects to produce any document or thing which he is required to produce,
without in any such case offering any sufficient excuse for such refusal or neglect, is guilty of an offence and is liable to imprisonment for six months and a fine of two hundred dollars.