Court reserves ruling on second group of treason assault claims

A SECOND batch of damages claims against the Ministers of Home Affairs and Defence over the alleged assault and unlawful arrest of suspects in the Caprivi high treason case is awaiting judgement in the High Court.

A trial on damages claims that three of men charged in the main Caprivi high treason trial have filed against the Ministers of Home Affairs and Defence came to an end before Acting Judge Hosea Angula in the High Court on Thursday last week.Acting Judge Angula reserved judgement after hearing last arguments from George Coleman, representing the Ministers on instructions from the Government Attorney, and Legal Assistance Centre lawyer Lynita Conradie, who is representing the three plaintiffs.The plaintiffs are Rex Kapanga, Frederick Lutuhezi and Roster Lukato.Kapanga is suing the Minister of Home Affairs for allegedly having been assaulted and unlawfully arrested by members of the Namibian Police in mid-November 1999.Lutuhezi is suing both the Home Affairs Minister – who used to be the Cabinet member responsible for the Namibian Police – and the Minister of Defence. He is claiming that he was assaulted by unknown members of the Namibia Defence Force and the Police at his house at Makanga, a village in the Caprivi Region, on August 7 1999. He is also claiming that he was unlawfully arrested by members of the Police on April 15 2000 by being taken into Police custody without the Police telling him why he was arrested.Lukato, claiming that a Police officer assaulted him when he was arrested on April 15 2000, is suing the Minister of Home Affairs over that.Arguing that the three plaintiffs had all proven their claims against the Ministers, Conradie suggested to Acting Judge Angula on Thursday that the court should award Kapanga between N$60 000 and N$80 000 for the alleged assault he suffered and between N$20 000 and N$30 000 for his alleged unlawful arrest. Lutuhezi should be awarded between N$50 000 and N$70 000 for the alleged assault, and between N$20 000 and N$30 000 for his alleged unlawful arrest, she also suggested. Lukato should be awarded between N$40 000 and N$50 000 for his alleged assault, she said.Lutuhezi was the only witness in respect of his claims.Four other witnesses – all of them also accused in the main treason trial – testified in support of Lukato’s claim, telling the court that they saw Lukato with injuries such as a swollen head and face and a bleeding nose after his alleged assault.Another co-accused in the treason trial also testified in support of Kapanga’s claim, telling the court that he heard Kapanga screaming while he was allegedly being assaulted and that he saw that Kapanga was injured after that incident.All of the Police officers accused of involvement in the alleged assaults denied the claims when they testified before Acting Judge Angula.It can hardly be expected that Police officers would come to court and admit under oath that they assaulted people, Conradie commented during her argument. The consequences would be very serious if Police officers were to admit something like assaults, as they could lose their job if they did that, she said.’Police officers are not known for coming to court and admitting these sort of things,’ Conradie remarked.Just like Kapanga, Lutuhezi, Lukato and the co-accused who testified in support of their claims all stuck together in their testimony, the Police officers who testified in support of the Ministers’ defence also presented a united front of denials to the court.Coleman argued that the evidence presented to the court by the three plaintiffs and their witnesses was not reliable. He argued that it should raise suspicions when ‘comrades in arms’, who are charged in the same case and have been together in custody for about nine years, testify in support of the claims of the three men.Coleman pointed out that the Police officer that Lutuhezi claimed had assaulted him on August 7 1999 was not even in the Caprivi Region at that time according to other evidence before the court.Other evidence that he said should throw the claims into doubt include testimony from a Magistrate and Public Prosecutor who saw Kapanga during a court appearance on November 17 1999. They told the court that they did not notice any injuries on him. Another Magistrate who took down an alleged confession from Lukato in May 2000 also did not see any injuries on him, and he did not report any assaults or injuries to her either, Coleman further pointed out.He asked the court to dismiss all the claims.Fellow LAC lawyer Toni Hancox is representing Kapanga, Lutuhezi and Lukato with Conradie.