Caprivi 13 re-re-arrested

POLICE manouevrings to prevent the release of the 13 Caprivi high
treason suspects in the face of Monday’s High Court order veered
towards farce on Wednesday: all 13 were freed from custody at the
Grootfontein Police Station, allowed to walk around the corner – only
to be promptly rearrested for high treason.

The 13 appeared before Magistrate Andre le Roux in the Grootfontein Magistrate’s Court yesterday morning. They were informed of their rights to legal representation, before their case was transferred to the Katima Mulilo Magistrate’s Court. Their first appearance in that court is set down for next Friday (March 5). Flanked by John Walters, special counsel to the prosecution team in the high treason case, an Acting Public Prosecutor, Lavinia Willibardt, told the Magistrate that the 13 had been arrested over offences committed within the Katima Mulilo lower court’s jurisdiction. By yesterday, the three charges on which the 13 were rearrested on Monday had been dropped again. That first re-arrest was carried out shortly after Judge Elton Hoff had ordered that they should be released because they were irregularly before the High Court and the court lacked the authority to try them. The State is set to ask Judge Hoff on Monday for leave to appeal to the Supreme Court against his ruling. SECRECY In keeping with the official secrecy and silence that have been the hallmarks of Police conduct here since Monday, a Police officer yesterday tried to prevent this reporter from taking photographs of the group as they were taken to court. After some shoving and obscuring the view through The Namibian’s camera the Policeman abandoned his efforts. Later, in court, other officers on the Police team preparing the high treason case made no attempt to interfere with the taking of photographs. John Samboma, the alleged commander of the secessionist Caprivi Liberation Army who is one of the 13 defendants legally granted their freedom on Monday, told The Namibian at the Magistrate’s Court that he and the others were told on Wednesday that the three charges laid against them after that order were being withdrawn. They had been told those were counts of illegally possessing elephant tusks (a charge supposedly dating back to 1992), of stealing car keys (supposedly dating back to 1998) and of common assault. Members of the group claimed they were not told whom they had allegedly assaulted. Legal papers issued to them state that these charges were being withdrawn because of “insufficient evidence”. One of the 13, Martin Siyano Tubaundule, claimed the first re-arrest this week actually took place right in the High Court dock on Monday afternoon. That was shortly after Judge Hoff had ordered their release, and after the Police had informed them they were being “released” – for what turned out to be for a matter of seconds only. Under cover of darkness on Wednesday, the Police carried out a second supposed release amid a shroud of secrecy. By dusk, an unusually large number of Police vehicles and officers were gathered at the Grootfontein Police Station, where the 13 had been kept in a cell since Monday evening. No public access was allowed to the station. Even the charge office, where members of the public normally go to lay complaints, was blocked off – but some of the 13 were spotted inside. The reason for these cloak-and-dagger tactics became clear yesterday: with the three charges levelled against the 13 on Monday having evaporated, the group were being put through the process of an official release on Wednesday. This process entailed the return of personal possessions, including shoelaces, which had been taken from them when they were locked up in the Police cells. Between 20h00 and 21h00, the group reported, they were allowed to leave the Police station as free men. Upon walking around the corner into an adjacent street, they were re-re-arrested – this time on the very charges ruled outside the High Court’s jurisdiction to try. Yesterday morning the shoes of those in the group who wear shoelaces were notable for their empty eyelets. Their new charge sheet lists the offences of which they now stand accused as ‘high treason, murder, attempted murder, as per annexure” – but no such annexure was attached to the indictment. ‘CONTEMPTUOUS’ A member of the high treason defence team, Patrick Kauta, yesterday slammed the second rearrest of the group as an illegal move . He added that the arrests were “highly contemptuous” since the High Court had already ruled that the 13 could not be charged and prosecuted in Namibia while they had been brought into the country by irregular means, with established extradition procedures with Zambia and Botswana having been ignored. Kauta said the defence team were still considering an urgent court application to thwart the renewed detention of their clients. Prosecution team special counsel Walters said the prosecution had not been involved in the Police decision to rearrest the group yet again. It would be up to a court to decide whether that arrest was legal or in contempt of court, he indicated. The 13 are: Samboma; his brother, Charles Samboma; Tubaundule; Thaddeus Siyoka Ndala; Oscar Nyambe Puteho; Charles Mafenyeho Mushakwa; Fred Maemelo Ziezo; Andreas Mulupa; Richard Libano Misuha; Oscar Muyuka Puteho; Richard John Samati; Moses Limbo Mushwena; and Osbert Mwenyi Likanyi.