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Police accused of assault in heist trial
SEVERE assaults were perpetrated on three of the suspects charged in connection with a N$5,7 million cash-in-transit heist near Windhoek at the end of 2004 when they were interrogated by Police officers at Keetmanshoop, defence lawyers claimed in the High Court in Windhoek yesterday.
In the wake of the allegations about serious Police transgressions during the investigation of the heist, defence counsel Sisa Namandje, who is one of the defence lawyers in the trial of the six men who are being prosecuted in connection with the robbery, now appears set to withdraw from the trial.
Police officers assaulted and tortured Jan Julius (38), the driver of the cash-in-transit vehicle that was targeted in the robbery in the Brakwater area north of Windhoek on December 29 2004, after his arrest, Julius’s defence lawyer, Jorge Neves, told Judge Naomi Shivute yesterday.
Julius is the first accused in the case in which six men are on trial before Judge Shivute on a charge of robbery with aggravating circumstances.
Neves told the court that members of the Police’s Serious Crime Unit in Windhoek subjected Julius to torture and assaults before he was transported all the way to Keetmanshoop for further interrogation. Neves claimed Julius was taken out of Windhoek on the Daan Viljoen road, where he was blindfolded, tied up, beaten, kicked and at one stage a fire was made on his chest. He was also electrocuted, Neves said.
At Keetmanshoop, the lawyer claimed, Julius was “severely assaulted” by members of the Serious Crime Unit and two civilians who assisted them. Neves said Julius was punched, kicked and smacked with an open hand.
Another one of the accused, Benedictus Kasimbingwe (46), also “was subjected to severe torture” by Police officers, Kasimbingwe’s lawyer, Koos Louw, further told the judge.
Namandje made a similar claim, telling Judge Shivute that according to one of his three clients in the case, George Jambeinge (39), he was taken to Keetmanshoop by force, denied access to a lawyer, and assaulted and forced to make admissions to the Police there.
The assault claims were made by the three lawyers when they indicated to the judge why they were objecting to evidence that Deputy Prosecutor General Heidi Jacobs was planning to place to the court through the testimony of Keetmanshoop Police officer Jacobus Otto.
Otto was testifying about an interrogation of Julius that was done at Keetmanshoop in the early morning hours of January 7 2005. He had just mentioned that after Julius at first denied any involvement in the robbery, he later on made admissions to his interrogators, when the defence lawyers told the judge about the allegations of assaults being levelled against Police officers who took part in the investigation of the heist.
A trial within a trial to determine if the alleged admissions made by Julius – and also by Jambeinge and Kasimbingwe – would be admissible as evidence in the trial, started after the defence lawyers placed their claims about the alleged assaults on record.
Otto denied that hea or any fellow Police officers at any stage assaulted or threatened Julius, Jambeinge or Kasimbingwe.
With Neves cross-exa-mining him, Otto was asked about another case that has led to his suspension from his position in the Police.
In that case, Otto and eight other Police officers stationed at Keetmanshoop are charged with murder and five assault charges over allegations that they had been involved in beating and mistreating suspects during interrogations at the Keetmanshoop Police Station at the end of January 2006.
The trial of Otto and his co-accused started in the High Court in June last year, when all of them pleaded not guilty to all charges. Namandje is representing all of the accused in that trial.
With that case raised by Neves, Namandje told the court that in his opinion the case of Otto and his co-accused has no relevance in the heist trial.
He however added that although his clients in the heist trial have indicated to him that they are satisfied that he can continue to represent them, he had been placed in a difficult situation in which he might not be able to effectively represent his clients’ interests in both cases.
Namandje indicated that he would have to withdraw from the robbery trial. He would however try to see if in the time until Monday it would be possible for one of the other defence lawyers involved in the case to take over from him, he said.
All of the six accused men on trial before Judge Shivute have pleaded not guilty to the charge. On trial with Julius, Jambeinge and Kasimbingwe are Jason Awene (43), alias “Kilingi”, Mateus Hauwanga (39) and Elikana Nghimwena (37).
The trial is now sche-duled to return to court on Monday.
