Another delay in 3-year-old murder, robbery trial

THE trial of two men accused of robbing and murdering a Chinese shop owner in Windhoek more than three years ago again failed to start as scheduled in the Windhoek Regional Court yesterday.

Witnesses who had been summoned to testify in the trial of Mario Alberto Hasheela (30) and Pearly Tulonga Paulus (27) were at the Windhoek Regional Court, ready to go into the witness box to start giving testimony, only to be excused after the withdrawal of Hasheela’s defence lawyer threw the pending trial out of its starting blocks again. Following defence lawyer Jorge Neves’s withdrawal, Hasheela told Magistrate Dinnah Usiku that he had applied to the Directorate of Legal Aid to be given another defence counsel, but has not yet been informed of the outcome of his application.The Magistrate excused the State witnesses who had summoned to appear in the court to give evidence.Magistrate Usiku postponed the case to September 7, when a new trial date is supposed to be set.Hasheela and Paulus face six charges: counts of murder, robbery with aggravating circumstances, two counts of illegal possession of firearms, and two charges of illegal possession of ammunition.They are accused of robbing Chinese shop owner Hang Fang Liang of N$554 930 in cash at a fuel station in Windhoek’s Mandume Ndemufayo Avenue on May 6 2004.During the robbery, Hang (51) was shot in the head.He later died in hospital.His two attackers tried to flee after the robbery and shooting, throwing down a bag containing the stolen cash as they attempted to get away, but were caught at the scene.They had allegedly been armed with two pistols when the robbery was carried out.Hasheela has been in custody for the three years and three months since then.Paulus was in custody until he was granted bail of N$3 000 in September last year.Paulus is set to be represented by defence lawyer Sisa Namandje.Public Prosecutor Karin Esterhuizen appeared for the State yesterday.Following defence lawyer Jorge Neves’s withdrawal, Hasheela told Magistrate Dinnah Usiku that he had applied to the Directorate of Legal Aid to be given another defence counsel, but has not yet been informed of the outcome of his application.The Magistrate excused the State witnesses who had summoned to appear in the court to give evidence. Magistrate Usiku postponed the case to September 7, when a new trial date is supposed to be set.Hasheela and Paulus face six charges: counts of murder, robbery with aggravating circumstances, two counts of illegal possession of firearms, and two charges of illegal possession of ammunition.They are accused of robbing Chinese shop owner Hang Fang Liang of N$554 930 in cash at a fuel station in Windhoek’s Mandume Ndemufayo Avenue on May 6 2004.During the robbery, Hang (51) was shot in the head.He later died in hospital.His two attackers tried to flee after the robbery and shooting, throwing down a bag containing the stolen cash as they attempted to get away, but were caught at the scene.They had allegedly been armed with two pistols when the robbery was carried out.Hasheela has been in custody for the three years and three months since then.Paulus was in custody until he was granted bail of N$3 000 in September last year.Paulus is set to be represented by defence lawyer Sisa Namandje.Public Prosecutor Karin Esterhuizen appeared for the State yesterday.