Bakondja court saga continues

THE second Windhoek Regional Court trial of serial escapee Bakondja Katjiuongua was again postponed this week – this time to late November.

Katjiuongua (28) now wants to have a re-run of his trial on a host of armed robbery, kidnapping and attempted murder charges by having State witnesses recalled to the witness stand so that they can face another round of cross-examination, Magistrate Gert Retief was informed when Katjiuongua made his latest appearance in the Windhoek Regional Court on Wednesday. The trial, which is supposed to be in its end stages, was postponed in mid-July after Katjiuongua had testified in his own defence.The aim of that postponement was to give Katjiuongua time to trace witnesses that he told the Magistrate he wanted to testify to support his defence to 14 of the 17 charges that he is facing.On Wednesday, a new lawyer who had been instructed by the Legal Aid Directorate to represent Katjiuongua, Frans Kwala, was in court to inform the Magistrate that he would need time to work through the trial record and to decide which witnesses he would ask the court to recall.As a result, the case was postponed to November 27 for the trial to continue.Katjiuongua’s trial started before Magistrate Retief in late October 2004, when Katjiuongua pleaded not guilty to all 17 counts.After the State, represented by Public Prosecutor Belinda Wantenaar, had closed its case against him, though, he changed his plea to guilty on three of the charges, in which he was accused of escaping from lawful custody.In that changed plea Katjiuongua admitted that he had escaped out of Police custody on September 6 2000, again on October 21 2000, and for a third time on March 1 2001.It was after that third escape that he allegedly committed the other crimes that he has been charged with in this trial.These include the theft of a firearm from his father during March 2001 and five counts of robbery with aggravating circumstances.In these, he is accused of stealing cars at gunpoint from people in Windhoek on March 4, March 6, twice on March 12, and again on March 25 2001.The charges also include three counts of kidnapping, in which he is accused of having held captive three of the people that he allegedly robbed by locking them in the boots of the cars that he stole from them on March 4, 6 and 12, and also two charges of attempted murder that are related to shots that were allegedly fired at people during the two alleged robberies on March 12 2001.Katjiuongua flatly denied having been responsible for any of these alleged crimes when he testified in his own defence on July 12.He was not even in Windhoek when these alleged incidents happened, he claimed.Katjiuongua remains in custody.He is now serving an effective four-year prison term that he received in early May last year on a host of fraud charges that he faced in his other trial in Windhoek Regional Court.He had been in custody on those charges when he staged his string of escapes and notched up the other charges against himself.Kwala is the third lawyer to represent Katjiuongua during his trial.Both his previous lawyers, Unanisa Hengari and Louis Karsten, withdrew in the course of the trial.The trial, which is supposed to be in its end stages, was postponed in mid-July after Katjiuongua had testified in his own defence.The aim of that postponement was to give Katjiuongua time to trace witnesses that he told the Magistrate he wanted to testify to support his defence to 14 of the 17 charges that he is facing.On Wednesday, a new lawyer who had been instructed by the Legal Aid Directorate to represent Katjiuongua, Frans Kwala, was in court to inform the Magistrate that he would need time to work through the trial record and to decide which witnesses he would ask the court to recall.As a result, the case was postponed to November 27 for the trial to continue.Katjiuongua’s trial started before Magistrate Retief in late October 2004, when Katjiuongua pleaded not guilty to all 17 counts.After the State, represented by Public Prosecutor Belinda Wantenaar, had closed its case against him, though, he changed his plea to guilty on three of the charges, in which he was accused of escaping from lawful custody.In that changed plea Katjiuongua admitted that he had escaped out of Police custody on September 6 2000, again on October 21 2000, and for a third time on March 1 2001.It was after that third escape that he allegedly committed the other crimes that he has been charged with in this trial.These include the theft of a firearm from his father during March 2001 and five counts of robbery with aggravating circumstances.In these, he is accused of stealing cars at gunpoint from people in Windhoek on March 4, March 6, twice on March 12, and again on March 25 2001.The charges also include three counts of kidnapping, in which he is accused of having held captive three of the people that he allegedly robbed by locking them in the boots of the cars that he stole from them on March 4, 6 and 12, and also two charges of attempted murder that are related to shots that were allegedly fired at people during the two alleged robberies on March 12 2001.Katjiuongua flatly denied having been responsible for any of these alleged crimes when he testified in his own defence on July 12.He was not even in Windhoek when these alleged incidents happened, he claimed.Katjiuongua remains in custody.He is now serving an effective four-year prison term that he received in early May last year on a host of fraud charges that he faced in his other trial in Windhoek Regional Court.He had been in custody on those charges when he staged his string of escapes and notched up the other charges against himself.Kwala is the third lawyer to represent Katjiuongua during his trial.Both his previous lawyers, Unanisa Hengari and Louis Karsten, withdrew in the course of the trial.