Bail beckons due to series of teen murder case delays

A YOUNG Windhoek resident accused of bludgeoning his 17-year-old girlfriend, Ipula Akwenye, to death in the capital 18 months ago is on the brink of being granted bail because of delays in getting his case ready for trial.

The suspected murderer of Akwenye – he was 17 years old when she was found dead, allegedly beaten to death with a pickaxe handle and a large stone, in a patch of veld in Windhoek West – made his sixteenth appearance in court yesterday, only to be told once again that no decision had been taken by the Prosecutor General. His defence lawyer, Jan Wessels, used this latest foreboding of a further delay to oppose another postponement.Having heard him and Public Prosecutor Tommy Nambahu on that point, Magistrate Rachel Nathaniel also voiced her concern over the number of postponements that had been experienced in the young murder suspect’s case so far.She remanded the matter only until Friday, and warned that she would grant the suspect bail if the Prosecutor General’s decision on the case was not available by then.Included in Wessels’s comments to the court was a remark that there had already been an 11-month wait for the PG’s decision.In actual fact, Wessels was kind to the PG’s Office with his calculation.The case was first postponed for the PG’s decision to be made in July last year – more than 13 months ago.When the case was last in court it was also postponed for the PG’s decision to become available.That was not a correct reflection of the facts, though, Deputy Prosecutor-General Jackson Kuutondokwa told The Namibian afterwards.He said that what was delaying the PG’s decision was a continued wait for test results, needed to wrap up the Police’s investigation of the case, to become available from the National Forensic Science Institute of Namibia.The suspect was arrested two days after Akwenye is suspected to have been murdered.He has twice had applications to be released on bail refused by the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court.His defence lawyer, Jan Wessels, used this latest foreboding of a further delay to oppose another postponement.Having heard him and Public Prosecutor Tommy Nambahu on that point, Magistrate Rachel Nathaniel also voiced her concern over the number of postponements that had been experienced in the young murder suspect’s case so far.She remanded the matter only until Friday, and warned that she would grant the suspect bail if the Prosecutor General’s decision on the case was not available by then.Included in Wessels’s comments to the court was a remark that there had already been an 11-month wait for the PG’s decision.In actual fact, Wessels was kind to the PG’s Office with his calculation.The case was first postponed for the PG’s decision to be made in July last year – more than 13 months ago.When the case was last in court it was also postponed for the PG’s decision to become available.That was not a correct reflection of the facts, though, Deputy Prosecutor-General Jackson Kuutondokwa told The Namibian afterwards.He said that what was delaying the PG’s decision was a continued wait for test results, needed to wrap up the Police’s investigation of the case, to become available from the National Forensic Science Institute of Namibia.The suspect was arrested two days after Akwenye is suspected to have been murdered.He has twice had applications to be released on bail refused by the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court.