Cops halt Kandara case

THE inquest into the death of Lazarus Kandara has been stopped in midstream. The inquest before Magistrate Maria Mahalie came to a sudden halt in the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court yesterday morning, after a lawyer representing four Police officers subpoenaed to give evidence at the enquiry into Kandara’s death applied for the Magistrate’s recusal from the case because the Magistrate attended Kandara’s funeral.

The first three days of proceedings at the inquest appear to have stirred not only the four officers, but also the Minister of Safety and Security, into action, it emerged when the inquiry into Kandara’s death was supposed to continue for a fourth day. Apart from being confronted with an application for her recusal by the officers’ lawyer, Sisa Namandje, the Magistrate was also informed by Public Prosecutor Petrus Grusshaber that he had been approached by the Police’s Deputy Commissioner Gerson Naweseb, who told him that the Minister of Safety and Security also had a “substantial interest” in the matter and would ask to have a legal representative present during further proceedings.Magistrate Mahalie refused lawyer Sisa Namandje’s recusal application, but was then told that Namandje had instructions from his clients – the Commanding Officer of the Police’s Serious Crime Unit, Detective Chief Inspector Oscar Sheehama, and three members of the Unit, Detective Sergeants Linekela Hilundwa and Frans Kantema, and Detective Constable Chaolin Tjitemisa – to challenge her refusal to recuse herself with an urgent application in the High Court.The effect of the sometimes testy interchange that played out between Magistrate Mahalie and Namandje in court is that the inquest into Kandara’s death has ground to a halt after three days of proceedings during which 12 witnesses gave evidence last week.After initially indicating that she wanted the inquest to proceed as planned and that Namandje would be free to continue with the intended urgent application in the meantime, the Magistrate ended up adjourning the inquest until after the High Court has given a ruling on Namandje’s application.Magistrate Mahalie also excused the remaining witnesses subpoenaed to testify at the inquest.This means that, if and when the inquest resumes, witnesses would have to be re-summoned to court, and would have to be given at least two weeks’ notice before the date on which the inquest may continue.POLICE IN SPOTLIGHT The focus of the inquest was set to shift yesterday onto the Police officers who had been summoned to testify about the gunshot death of Kandara outside the entrance of the Windhoek Police Station on the evening of August 24 last year.Kandara had been arrested a few hours earlier on charges of fraud and theft related to an investment of N$30 million that the Social Security Commission had channelled through Avid Investment Corporation in January last year.Kandara started Avid, an asset management company, in 2004.Instead of the first of the Police witnesses stepping into the witness box, though, Namandje brought a double-barrelled application before Magistrate Mahalie.He firstly asked her to allow the four officers to have a legal representative present in court when the inquest continues, and to allow their lawyer to question witnesses if need be.This request was eventually granted, with the Magistrate also commenting that the inquest was not a criminal trial against the four Police officers, and that up to yesterday there had been no fingers pointed at them as having been responsible for Kandara’s death.Namandje told the Magistrate that the request to allow a legal representative for the four officers to sit in at the inquest and take part in the proceedings by examining witnesses was prompted by testimony that was delivered before the Magistrate on Thursday.VITAL HOURS That testimony came from two Police officers who had been on duty at the Windhoek Police station up to 22h00 on the evening of August 24 2000.One of them, Sergeant Benjamin Khoeseb, was the first to tell the Magistrate that Sheehama had asked to see the then detained Nico Josea, who was being held in the cells at the Police station, at about 20h00 that evening, and that the two men then had a conversation that lasted some two hours, according to Khoeseb’s estimation.Josea is, after Kandara, a second major figure in the web of financial transfers and transactions that followed on the SSC’s N$30 million investment with Avid.He was the first person to be arrested in connection with Avid’s inability to repay the money to the SSC by the due date in late May last year, and still faces criminal charges based on allegations that he had taken N$15 million of the SSC’s investment money for his own use.After Khoeseb, Constable Josephat Kamatoto also told the Magistrate that Sheehama had arrived at the Police station that evening and asked to see Josea, saying he wanted to speak to him while waiting for Kandara to be brought to the station.According to Kamatoto, the time of Sheehama’s arrival at the station was between 20h00 and 21h00, and his talk with Josea lasted until about 22h00.Those were crucial hours in the time leading to Kandara’s shooting, which the Police claim was a case of suicide.In the time that Sheehama is claimed to have been talking to Josea, the Magistrate has heard during the inquest so far, Hilundwa, Kantema and Tjitemisa were with Kandara on a visit to his house.There he was allowed to eat supper, bath and change his clothes before he was taken to the Police station, where he was set to be locked up in the cells.The Magistrate has also heard that before that visit to his house, Kandara was taken to visit the house of a relative, lawyer Gerson Hinda, where he collected a camping mattress.’JOSEA’S MESS’ According to Hinda, Kandara made a remark at that time that he had been arrested for a mess that had been created by Josea.After his conversation with Josea had ended, Sheehama used a Police radio to contact the officers who were escorting Kandara, Khoeseb also said.According to Kamatoto, Sheehama was getting worried about where they were at that stage.Kandara was shot – or according to the Police he shot himself with a gun that he had managed to get hold of during the visit to his home – on his arrival at the Police station at around 22h30.With Sheehama and his colleagues still waiting outside the court for their turn to testify, and without a lawyer present in court and in a position to question Khoeseb and Kamatoto about their testimony about the claimed conversation between Sheehama and Josea, that testimony remained unchallenged and waiting for an explanation from Sheehama last week.Namandje told the Magistrate yesterday that certain insinuations were raised by that testimony and that Sheehama and his colleagues’ reputations were at stake, which was why they wanted to be legally represented when the inquest continues.’I BELIEVE IN FAIRNESS’ On the request for her recusal, Magistrate Mahalie said she was not related to Kandara, but had been to his funeral – just like she had also in the past attended many funerals of people that she did not know.She believes in fairness, and fairness goes with conscience, and her conscience would not have allowed her to preside over Kandara’s inquest if she had any interest in the outcome of the matter, she stated.She believes that an inquest should be thorough and that the public and interested parties must be satisfied that a full and fair investigation of the circumstances of the deceased person had taken place, she said.In her view, Namandje’s recusal application was without a basis, and was in fact an interference with her judicial functions, she told the lawyer in court.Apart from being confronted with an application for her recusal by the officers’ lawyer, Sisa Namandje, the Magistrate was also informed by Public Prosecutor Petrus Grusshaber that he had been approached by the Police’s Deputy Commissioner Gerson Naweseb, who told him that the Minister of Safety and Security also had a “substantial interest” in the matter and would ask to have a legal representative present during further proceedings. Magistrate Mahalie refused lawyer Sisa Namandje’s recusal application, but was then told that Namandje had instructions from his clients – the Commanding Officer of the Police’s Serious Crime Unit, Detective Chief Inspector Oscar Sheehama, and three members of the Unit, Detective Sergeants Linekela Hilundwa and Frans Kantema, and Detective Constable Chaolin Tjitemisa – to challenge her refusal to recuse herself with an urgent application in the High Court.The effect of the sometimes testy interchange that played out between Magistrate Mahalie and Namandje in court is that the inquest into Kandara’s death has ground to a halt after three days of proceedings during which 12 witnesses gave evidence last week.After initially indicating that she wanted the inquest to proceed as planned and that Namandje would be free to continue with the intended urgent application in the meantime, the Magistrate ended up adjourning the inquest until after the High Court has given a ruling on Namandje’s application.Magistrate Mahalie also excused the remaining witnesses subpoenaed to testify at the inquest.This means that, if and when the inquest resumes, witnesses would have to be re-summoned to court, and would have to be given at least two weeks’ notice before the date on which the inquest may continue. POLICE IN SPOTLIGHT The focus of the inquest was set to shift yesterday onto the Police officers who had been summoned to testify about the gunshot death of Kandara outside the entrance of the Windhoek Police Station on the evening of August 24 last year.Kandara had been arrested a few hours earlier on charges of fraud and theft related to an investment of N$30 million that the Social Security Commission had channelled through Avid Investment Corporation in January last year.Kandara started Avid, an asset management company, in 2004.Instead of the first of the Police witnesses stepping into the witness box, though, Namandje brought a double-barrelled application before Magistrate Mahalie.He firstly asked her to allow the four officers to have a legal representative present in court when the inquest continues, and to allow their lawyer to question witnesses if need be.This request was eventually granted, with the Magistrate also commenting that the inquest was not a criminal trial against the four Police officers, and that up to yesterday there had been no fingers pointed at them as having been responsible for Kandara’s death.Namandje told the Magistrate that the request to allow a legal representative for the four officers to sit in at the inquest and take part in the proceedings by examining witnesses was prompted by testimony that was delivered before the Magistrate on Thursday.VITAL HOURS That testimony came from two Police officers who had been on duty at the Windhoek Police station up to 22h00 on the evening of August 24 2000.One of them, Sergeant Benjamin Khoeseb, was the first to tell the Magistrate that Sheehama had asked to see the then detained Nico Josea, who was being held in the cells at the Police station, at about 20h00 that evening, and that the two men then had a conversation that lasted some two hours, according to Khoeseb’s estimation.Josea is, after Kandara, a second major figure in the web of financial transfers and transactions that followed on the SSC’s N$30 million investment with Avid.He was the first person to be arrested in connection with Avid’s inability to repay the money to the SSC by the due date in late May last year, and still faces criminal charges based on allegations that he had taken N$15 million of the SSC’s investment money for his own use.After Khoeseb, Constable Josephat Kamatoto also told the Magistrate that Sheehama had arrived at the Police station that evening and asked to see Josea, saying he wanted to speak to him while waiting for Kandara to be brought to the station.According to Kamatoto, the time of Sheehama’s arrival at the station was between 20h00 and 21h00, and his talk with Josea lasted until about 22h00.Those were crucial hours in the time leading to Kandara’s shooting, which the Police claim was a case of suicide.In the time that Sheehama is claimed to have been talking to Josea, the Magistrate has heard during the inquest so far, Hilundwa, Kantema and Tjitemisa were with Kandara on a visit to his house.There he was allowed to eat supper, bath and change his clothes before he was taken to the Police station, where he was set to be locked up in the cells.The Magistrate has also heard that before that visit to his house, Kandara was taken to visit the house of a relative, lawyer Gerson Hinda, where he collected a camping mattress.’JOSEA’S MESS’ According to Hinda, Kandara made a remark at that time that he had been arrested for a mess that had been created by Josea.After his conversation with Josea had ended, Sheehama used a Police radio to contact the officers who were escorting Kandara, Khoeseb also said.According to Kamatoto, Sheehama was getting worried about where they were at that stage.Kandara was shot – or according to the Police he shot himself with a gun that he had managed to get hold of during the visit to his home – on his arrival at the Police station at around 22h30.With Sheehama and his colleagues still waiting outside the court for their turn to testify, and without a lawyer present in court and in a position to question Khoeseb and Kamatoto about their testimony about the claimed conversation between Sheehama and Josea, that testimony remained unchallenged and waiting for an explanation from Sheehama last week.Namandje told the Magistrate yesterday that certain insinuations were raised by that testimony and that Sheehama and his colleagues’ reputations were at stake, which was why they wanted to be legally represented when the inquest continues. ‘I BELIEVE IN FAIRNESS’ On the request for her recusal, Magistrate Mahalie said she was not related to Kandara, but had been to his funeral – just like she had also in the past attended many funerals of people that she did not know.She believes in fairness, and fairness goes with conscience, and her conscience would not have allowed her to preside over Kandara’s inquest if she had any interest in the outcome of the matter, she stated.She believes that an inquest should be thorough and that the public and interested parties must be satisfied that a full and fair investigation of the circumstances of the deceased person had taken place, she said.In her view, Namandje’s recusal application was without a basis, and was in fact an interference with her judicial functions, she told the lawyer in court.