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Friday, August 29, 2008 - Web posted at 8:40:44 AM GMT Lawyer issue delays cop's trial WERNER MENGESREPEATED attempts to start the trial of Rundu Police officer Gerald Kashamba, who is accused of murdering his school principal wife at their home almost a year ago, finally came to nothing but a further postponement of Kashamba's case in the High Court in Windhoek yesterday. |
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The 51-year-old Kashamba, a Warrant Officer in the Namibian Police who is accused of killing his wife, school principal Laurentia Kashamba (49), in their house at Rundu on September 8 last year, is now set to attend another pre-trial hearing in the High Court on September 18 before the next planned starting date of his trial will be fixed. Kashamba's trial had initially been scheduled to take place in the High Court between April 14 and May 14 this year. Because of a congested court roll first, and then the illness of defence lawyer Slysken Makando, the trial did not start as planned, with the third week of August then set as the next starting date for the trial. Since Monday last week Kashamba has been making repeated appearances before Judge Nate Ndauendapo, with his case having to be postponed each time because Makando had not yet received formal instructions from the Directorate of Legal Aid to represent Kashamba. With his latest appearance before Judge Ndauendapo yesterday, Deputy Prosecutor General Zenobia Barry told the Judge that the Legal Aid Directorate had finally given instructions to a lawyer to represent Kashamba - but this lawyer is not Makando. Defence counsel Bradley Basson told the Judge that he had received instructions to represent Kashamba only late on Wednesday. Basson said he still needed to receive and study a copy of the Police docket on the case. He suggested that Kashamba should make a pre-trial appearance in the court again for another date for the start of his trial to be set. Makando had been representing Kashamba since about a month after Kashamba's arrest on September 8 2007. He also represented Kashamba in an unsuccessful bail application in the Rundu Magistrate's Court in November last year. During the bail hearing Kashamba, who has been a Police officer for the past 30 years, told the court that the death of his wife, to whom he had been married for 24 years, was the result of an accidental shooting. Mrs Kashamba died from a gunshot injury that went sideways through her chest. Kashamba said he returned home between 01h00 and 02h00 on September 8 last year, after he had spent the previous evening drinking beer at a lodge and a shebeen at Rundu. On his arrival home, his wife started questioning him about where he had been, and accused him of having visited another woman, which he denied, Kashamba said. He claimed that his wife eventually went to fetch a pistol that they had in the house, telling him that she and he were going to pay a visit to the woman that she was accusing him of having visited. Kashamba said he tried to grab the gun away from his wife."In the process, when I grabbed the firearm, by accident, pulled the trigger and something came out," (sic) he recounted. Kashamba also told the Magistrate that it was he who pulled the trigger of the gun: "During this, the accident, I pulled the trigger and the bullet came out." He also said he did not know who had loaded the gun or that it was even loaded, adding that he did not see his wife loading the firearm. He claimed that she had been the last person to use the weapon before the incident that claimed her life. "Even during the struggle I did not know that it was loaded. I thought it was on safety," Kashamba told the court, before his request to be released on bail was turned down. Kashamba has been in custody for close to a year now. |
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