Charges pile up against re-arrested Jones brothers

CHARGES of robbery, kidnapping and escaping from lawful custody were added yesterday to the array of criminal counts already faced by re-arrested escapees Chris and Ian Jones.

Brothers Ian and Chris Jones, aged 26 and 23 respectively, were returned to the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court in the capital’s Lüderitz Street under strong Police guard yesterday afternoon. It was from the same court that they managed to escape last Monday, setting off a Police manhunt that resulted in their arrest in the Fish River canyon in the far south of Namibia on Saturday morning.The Joneses had been set to appear in court yesterday morning already.However, Police officers who went to fetch the pair encountered resistance from the Joneses’ fellow trial-awaiting detainees, who rallied round the brothers in an apparent effort to protect them from being taken to court, according sources at the court and in the Police.The situation was eventually defused when the brothers themselves agreed to be taken to court.By the afternoon, although they were closely guarded, the atmosphere between two brothers and the Police officers keeping a sharp eye over them appeared to be relaxed and friendly.The brothers readily related snippets of information about the five days that they had been on the run, until they were recaptured in an exhausted and hungry state after they had walked 80 km down the Fish River Canyon from Ai-Ais.It had been a gruelling experience to go without food for five days, and to have only muddy river water that seemed to make them sick available to drink, they told The Namibian.It had been the absolute inhumane conditions that prevail in the Windhoek Central Prison, where they have now been awaiting their trial on charges of murder, armed robbery and kidnapping for the past two years and almost four months, that prompted them to embark on the escape, Ian Jones related.Their flight the past week had been a matter of trying to regain their freedom, without hurting anyone in the process, the brothers explained.To illustrate their explanation, they related that they took off a jacket that one of them was wearing last Monday, and left it with the woman whom they had kidnapped while stealing her bakkie to use as a getaway vehicle.They had left her tied to a tree at a spot in the veld near the University of Namibia campus in Windhoek.They left the jacket with her because they thought she might be found only the next day, and they did not want her to be cold during the night, they said.As it turned out, she was found the same day – and the Joneses, ill-equipped for their trek down the canyon, experienced not only extreme hunger and fatigue while fleeing along the course of the Fish River, heading towards the South African border at the Orange River, but also had to endure severe cold at night, they claimed.The brothers’ court appearance before Magistrate Sarel Jacobs on charges of robbery, kidnapping and escape from lawful custody was very brief yesterday.They were only told that their case was being postponed to August 2 for further investigation, and that they would remain in custody until then.It was from the same court that they managed to escape last Monday, setting off a Police manhunt that resulted in their arrest in the Fish River canyon in the far south of Namibia on Saturday morning.The Joneses had been set to appear in court yesterday morning already.However, Police officers who went to fetch the pair encountered resistance from the Joneses’ fellow trial-awaiting detainees, who rallied round the brothers in an apparent effort to protect them from being taken to court, according sources at the court and in the Police.The situation was eventually defused when the brothers themselves agreed to be taken to court.By the afternoon, although they were closely guarded, the atmosphere between two brothers and the Police officers keeping a sharp eye over them appeared to be relaxed and friendly.The brothers readily related snippets of information about the five days that they had been on the run, until they were recaptured in an exhausted and hungry state after they had walked 80 km down the Fish River Canyon from Ai-Ais.It had been a gruelling experience to go without food for five days, and to have only muddy river water that seemed to make them sick available to drink, they told The Namibian.It had been the absolute inhumane conditions that prevail in the Windhoek Central Prison, where they have now been awaiting their trial on charges of murder, armed robbery and kidnapping for the past two years and almost four months, that prompted them to embark on the escape, Ian Jones related.Their flight the past week had been a matter of trying to regain their freedom, without hurting anyone in the process, the brothers explained.To illustrate their explanation, they related that they took off a jacket that one of them was wearing last Monday, and left it with the woman whom they had kidnapped while stealing her bakkie to use as a getaway vehicle.They had left her tied to a tree at a spot in the veld near the University of Namibia campus in Windhoek.They left the jacket with her because they thought she might be found only the next day, and they did not want her to be cold during the night, they said.As it turned out, she was found the same day – and the Joneses, ill-equipped for their trek down the canyon, experienced not only extreme hunger and fatigue while fleeing along the course of the Fish River, heading towards the South African border at the Orange River, but also had to endure severe cold at night, they claimed.The brothers’ court appearance before Magistrate Sarel Jacobs on charges of robbery, kidnapping and escape from lawful custody was very brief yesterday.They were only told that their case was being postponed to August 2 for further investigation, and that they would remain in custody until then.