Ex-cop denies arson charge

•WERNER MENGES

A BREAK of more than a year and a half in the arson trial of former Namibian Police detective Michael Booysen came to an end in the Windhoek Regional Court this week.
Former Detective Inspector Booysen went into the witness box, before acting Regional Court Magistrate Christie Mostert, on Tuesday to deny the four charges that remain against him after he had been discharged on another three counts at the close of the prosecution’s case in late September 2007.
In the charges still standing against him, Booysen is charged with malicious damage to property for having allegedly damaged a door and window at the flat of his girlfriend at the Windhoek Central Hospital Nurses’ Home on August 7, 2004, a count of arson, alternatively malicious damage to property, for having allegedly set his girlfriend’s flat on fire on August 9, 2004, a count of discharging a firearm in a public place or a municipal area on August 9, 2004, and a charge of assault by threat for allegedly having threatened that he would shoot a fellow Police officer after the blaze at his girlfriend’s flat.
‘I never threatened them,’ Booysen told the court in connection with the allegation that he had made a threat to a fellow Police officer, Ivan Amuela, that he would shoot anyone who came to the flat of his girlfriend, Agnes Kooper, where Booysen had been firing shots on August 7, 2004.
Booysen admitted that he had been responsible for a shooting in the flat that day.
He told the court that he and Kooper had been having relationship problems. He suspected her of being involved with someone else, he said.
On the day of the shooting, he went to her seventh-floor flat to discuss the situation with her, Booysen testified, and an argument ensued. She wanted to leave the flat, he tried to stop her and she pushed him, he said.
He fell against a stove, which fell over as he tried to hold onto it to keep his balance, Booysen said.
Kooper told the court after the start of the trial in September 2007 that the stove was switched on when Booysen was in her flat and she hurriedly left following a confrontation between them. According to Booysen he did not know whether the stove was switched on or off.
He said he got angry after Kooper had left the flat. Driven by jealousy and anger, he took out his Police pistol and fired shots at items in the flat – including the stove and a television – that he had helped buy, he said.
After that, he left the flat and first looked for Kooper on the top floor before he left the building, Booysen testified. He told the court that at that stage he did not know of any fire in the building.
He did not even have matches, a lighter or cigarettes with him, Booysen said.
Also, as an experienced Police officer, he could not do something like starting a fire when he knew there was a danger that other parts of the building could also start burning, he said.
He also denied saying that he had started the fire.
One of the prosecution’s witnesses told the court that he heard Booysen saying he had set fire to his goods. Another witness claimed he heard Booysen saying he had set fire to his clothes in the flat.
In a report by a team from the National Forensic Science Institute of Namibia, it was concluded that the fire had been started in at least two separate places in the flat and that it was ‘highly probably’ caused by ‘deliberate human intervention’. An electrical cause for the fire was ruled out in the report.
Booysen’s arrest after the incident ended his Police career.
Defence lawyer Sisa Namandje and Public Prosecutor Simba Nduna on Wednesday addressed the court on the judgement that is to be delivered in the case. Nduna argued that Booysen should be convicted on all of the four remaining charges.
While conceding that Booysen could be found guilty of discharging a firearm in a public place, Namandje argued that the other charges had not been proven. The verdict is scheduled to be given next Wednesday.