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Monday, April 22, 2002 - Web posted at 9:14:38 pm GMT

THREE Police officers are among five suspects accused of murdering a student in Police custody at Okahandja in November 1999 who made their first pre-trial hearing in the High Court in Windhoek.

The High Court appearance of the five - including three Police officers - comes close to two and a half years after the death of final-year education student Antonius Cazu Bapello (30) in the Okahandja Police station on November 14 1999.

A few days after Bapello's death, some 400 fellow students demonstrated against Police brutality at the Ministry of Home Affairs headquarters in Windhoek.

At the time of the protest, only the first accused, suspended Police Constable Chris Wacko Witbooi, had been charged, and the students insisted that two other Okahandja Policemen and two people detained at the Okahandja Police station when Bapello was killed should also be charged.

These other suspects were in the dock with Witbooi on Thursday.

They are suspended Police members Italy Micke Awaseb and Andre Lesley Steenkamp, and civilians Henock Haufiku and Himuti Kaaheke.

The five face nine charges, of which one is a count of murder and seven of attempted murder, for alleged attacks on other students at the Okahandja Police Station on November 14 1999.

The three Policemen are also charged with the negligent discharge of a firearm.

The five suspects heard on Thursday that they have to appear at another pre-trial hearing on May 14, since their legal representation had not yet been sorted out.

According to the indictment against the five, Bapello died from abdominal injuries after he had been kicked, slapped, hit with cell keys, a whip, a broomstick, a knobkierie and firearms, and after his attackers had jumped onto his body.

Bapello and a group of fellow students were at the Police station to find out if charges had been laid against students who were earlier that night involved in a fight at the Gross Barmen Resort outside Okahandja.

At the station a fight allegedly broke out between Bapello and Witbooi. Bapello's companions broke up the altercation.

When the students were on their way back to Bapello's car, Witbooi, Awaseb and Steenkamp allegedly fired shots at them or into the ground, and the students were ordered back into the station.

The assaults on Bapello and seven others - they were allegedly also kicked, slapped and hit with various objects, while one was allegedly shot at - happened there, the State charges.

Bapello was a student at the Windhoek College of Education at the time of his death.

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