Doctors’ robbery case postponed to July 21

A ROBBERY case against three young medical doctors accused of a night-time attack on a Sierra Leonean colleague on the grounds of the Windhoek Central Hospital was on Friday postponed to July.

The next court appearance of medical doctors Gert Hendrik Engelbrecht (24), Johannes Pieter Human (24) and Werner Herman Wagner (28) is now scheduled to take place in the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court on July 21. Magistrate Sarel Jacobs informed the trio that when they next appeared in court it would be to plead to the charge against them and for their trial to start.The three are accused of attacking a Sierra Leonean doctor, John Kamara, on the grounds of the Windhoek Central Hospital in the early hours of February 19.Kamara – who, like his three alleged attackers, was a medical intern in the employ of the Ministry of Health and Social Services at that stage – reported that he was driving to the Katutura State Hospital, where he had been called for an emergency operation, when another vehicle tried to force him off the road.He tried to make it to safety, and eventually abandoned his car, trying to run into a bushy area to escape, but was caught and assaulted.The assailants eventually left, allegedly with his cellphone, he reported.Engelbrecht and Human were charged the next day.All three doctors were released on bail of N$1 000 each.After they had been charged, the Acting Medical Superintendent of the Windhoek State Hospital, Dr Andreas Obholzer, described the incident as having been a case of mistaken identity.The explanation offered at the time was that the three alleged attackers were understood to have been reacting to a spate of burglaries that had plagued staff quarters at the State Hospital when they set upon Kamara, mistaking him for an intruder whom they suspected had been involved in the break-ins.Magistrate Sarel Jacobs informed the trio that when they next appeared in court it would be to plead to the charge against them and for their trial to start.The three are accused of attacking a Sierra Leonean doctor, John Kamara, on the grounds of the Windhoek Central Hospital in the early hours of February 19.Kamara – who, like his three alleged attackers, was a medical intern in the employ of the Ministry of Health and Social Services at that stage – reported that he was driving to the Katutura State Hospital, where he had been called for an emergency operation, when another vehicle tried to force him off the road.He tried to make it to safety, and eventually abandoned his car, trying to run into a bushy area to escape, but was caught and assaulted.The assailants eventually left, allegedly with his cellphone, he reported.Engelbrecht and Human were charged the next day.All three doctors were released on bail of N$1 000 each.After they had been charged, the Acting Medical Superintendent of the Windhoek State Hospital, Dr Andreas Obholzer, described the incident as having been a case of mistaken identity.The explanation offered at the time was that the three alleged attackers were understood to have been reacting to a spate of burglaries that had plagued staff quarters at the State Hospital when they set upon Kamara, mistaking him for an intruder whom they suspected had been involved in the break-ins.