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Tuesday, December 19, 2006 - Web posted at 7:36:19 GMT Court postpones stock-theft case against treason suspects WERNER MENGESTHE case in which two of the men who are facing charges in the main Caprivi high treason trial are accused of having stolen a herd of cattle that belonged to exiled alleged separatist leader Mishake Muyongo was again postponed in the Katima Mulilo Regional Court last week. |
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Former Member of Parliament Geoffrey Mwilima (51), one of his 118 co-accused in the main Caprivi high treason trial, Gabriel Mwilima (44), and the latter's wife, Betty Mwilima (41), were scheduled to go on trial in the Katima Mulilo Regional Court on charges of stock theft and contravening the Agricultural Bank Act on Tuesday last week. Their trial did not proceed, however, since the former MP had been admitted to hospital after falling ill, the court was informed. Mwilima has since returned to Windhoek Central Prison, where he and his co-accused in the treason trial are kept, the warden of the prison, Chief Superintendent Ismail Kamati, said yesterday. He was not aware of any medical problems that Mwilima had experienced during his trip from Windhoek to Katima Mulilo for last week's court appearance, Kamati said. As far as he was aware, he said, Mwilima's health is currently in its normal, if somewhat problematical, state, and Mwilima is not in hospital at the moment. Mwilima suffers from diabetes, high blood pressure and kidney dysfunction. His health problems earlier this year prompted him to again apply to be released on bail, but his bail application - the fourth since his arrest more than seven years and four months ago - was turned down in the High Court early this month. The charges that Mwilima, Gabriel Mwilima and Betty Mwilima are facing at Katima Mulilo date back more than seven years to 1999. Early in 1999, it is alleged, the Agricultural Bank was granted a judgement against Muyongo, who had left Namibia to Botswana with an allegedly armed group of close to 100 men during the last days of October the previous year. Muyongo left not only an alleged secessionist organisation, but also unpaid debts behind in Namibia, which led to the Agribank judgement being granted against him. On the authority of that judgement, the Deputy Sheriff for the Katima Mulilo district in early January 1999 attached some 140 head of cattle that belonged to Muyongo. By November that year, however, the Deputy Sheriff allegedly realised that the cattle had disappeared from the place where they were supposed to be kept. By that time, both Geoffrey Mwilima, who is a cousin of Muyongo, and Gabriel Mwilima, who is Muyongo's son-in-law, had already been in Police custody for some three months - but they and Betty Mwilima, who is a daughter of Muyongo, still got blamed for the disappearance of the animals. They are facing charges of stock theft, alternatively theft, and contravening the Agricultural Bank Act by obstructing or hindering the sale of property, or knowingly disposing of goods that are under judicial attachment in terms of the Act. Jorge Neves, the lawyer representing all three suspects in the case, has already indicated that they are denying the charges. The case is now set to return to court on January 12. The trial is not expected to begin on that date either, but a date might then be set for its start. |
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