Ex-Prosecutor stays in dock in second High Court trial

THE second High Court trial of former Outapi Magistrate’s Court Public Prosecutor Stanley Nakale passed a key point yesterday, when Nakale heard that he has gained only scant relief with his bid to be discharged on the nine counts he faces.

Nakale (31) asked Judge Kato van Niekerk almost two weeks ago to discharge him on all nine charges. He applied for his discharge after the prosecution closed its case.He argued that the evidence the State had presented was so weak that it had to pronounce him not guilty at this stage of the trial, without requiring that he present the case in his defence.Yesterday Judge van Niekerk declined that request on seven of the charges.On the last two charges, in respect of which State advocate Sandra Miller did not resist Nakale’s discharge application, Judge van Niekerk found Nakale not guilty.The last two charges were a count of driving a motor vehicle without the consent of the owner or of a person lawfully in charge of the vehicle, and a charge of theft.Under the last charge, Nakale was accused of stealing an unknown quantity of fuel from Government between February 27 and March 4 2005 at Outapi.On the other charge, he was accused of driving a Government-owned vehicle without the consent of the owner or of the person lawfully in charge of it between February 27 and March 4 2005.The charges on which Judge van Niekerk declined to find Nakale not guilty, are a count of culpable homicide, a charge of reckless or negligent driving, two counts of fraud, a charge of theft, and another two remaining counts of driving a motor vehicle without the consent of the owner or of a person lawfully in charge of the vehicle.The charges flow from allegations that, as a result of the reckless or negligent way he was driving, Nakale crashed a Government-owned vehicle into a fence next to a public road at Omholo village in the Outapi district on the evening of Saturday, October 18 2003.He did not have the necessary authority to use that vehicle outside working hours, it is alleged.Nakale is also accused of having been responsible for another accident with a Government-owned vehicle along the Oshakati-Outapi main road on March 6 2005.In that accident, one of the nine passengers that Nakale is alleged to have been transporting, Hileni Sindano Andreki, died when the vehicle overturned.Nakale is further accused of committing fraud on March 4 and 6 2005 by using Government purchase orders to fill up the Government vehicle that he was using at the time, allegedly after the official trip authorisation that allowed him to use the vehicle had already expired by the end of February 2005.Nakale denies all the charges.In her ruling, Judge van Niekerk commented that none of the State witnesses who gave evidence “testified so poorly that no reasonable person could rely on their testimony or that their credibility was so destroyed that I should ignore their evidence”.On all the counts on which she dismissed Nakale’s application to be discharged, there was prima facie evidence – evidence which, if left uncontradicted by evidence that the court might hear when Nakale presents his defence case to the court – on which the court may convict Nakale, she indicated.With Nakale having been hospitalised with malaria last week, and having been booked off again yesterday and today, the trial is set to continue tomorrow.Nakale remains free on bail.Nakale is also in the dock in a second trial in the High Court.In that trial before Judge Louis Muller, he and two court officials who were stationed at the Outapi Magistrate’s Court at the same time that he worked there as a Public Prosecutor are facing 14 charges.These include four counts of corruption, three charges of fraud, three charges of forgery, and a count of defeating or obstructing the course of justice.The charges all flow from allegations that Nakale solicited and received a bribe of N$7 000 from the wife of an incest and rape suspect in return for getting the suspect released on bail in May 2005.Judge Muller is set to give his verdict in that trial on June 4.Nakale’s trial started in March last year.He applied for his discharge after the prosecution closed its case.He argued that the evidence the State had presented was so weak that it had to pronounce him not guilty at this stage of the trial, without requiring that he present the case in his defence.Yesterday Judge van Niekerk declined that request on seven of the charges.On the last two charges, in respect of which State advocate Sandra Miller did not resist Nakale’s discharge application, Judge van Niekerk found Nakale not guilty.The last two charges were a count of driving a motor vehicle without the consent of the owner or of a person lawfully in charge of the vehicle, and a charge of theft.Under the last charge, Nakale was accused of stealing an unknown quantity of fuel from Government between February 27 and March 4 2005 at Outapi.On the other charge, he was accused of driving a Government-owned vehicle without the consent of the owner or of the person lawfully in charge of it between February 27 and March 4 2005.The charges on which Judge van Niekerk declined to find Nakale not guilty, are a count of culpable homicide, a charge of reckless or negligent driving, two counts of fraud, a charge of theft, and another two remaining counts of driving a motor vehicle without the consent of the owner or of a person lawfully in charge of the vehicle.The charges flow from allegations that, as a result of the reckless or negligent way he was driving, Nakale crashed a Government-owned vehicle into a fence next to a public road at Omholo village in the Outapi district on the evening of Saturday, October 18 2003.He did not have the necessary authority to use that vehicle outside working hours, it is alleged.Nakale is also accused of having been responsible for another accident with a Government-owned vehicle along the Oshakati-Outapi main road on March 6 2005.In that accident, one of the nine passengers that Nakale is alleged to have been transporting, Hileni Sindano Andreki, died when the vehicle overturned.Nakale is further accused of committing fraud on March 4 and 6 2005 by using Government purchase orders to fill up the Government vehicle that he was using at the time, allegedly after the official trip authorisation that allowed him to use the vehicle had already expired by the end of February 2005.Nakale denies all the charges.In her ruling, Judge van Niekerk commented that none of the State witnesses who gave evidence “testified so poorly that no reasonable person could rely on their testimony or that their credibility was so destroyed that I should ignore their evidence”.On all the counts on which she dismissed Nakale’s application to be discharged, there was prima facie evidence – evidence which, if left uncontradicted by evidence that the court might hear when Nakale presents his defence case to the court – on which the court may convict Nakale, she indicated.With Nakale having been hospitalised with malaria last week, and having been booked off again yesterday and today, the trial is set to continue tomorrow.Nakale remains free on bail.Nakale is also in the dock in a second trial in the High Court.In that trial before Judge Louis Muller, he and two court officials who were stationed at the Outapi Magistrate’s Court at the same time that he worked there as a Public Prosecutor are facing 14 charges.These include four counts of corruption, three charges of fraud, three charges of forgery, and a count of defeating or obstructing the course of justice.The charges all flow from allegations that Nakale solicited and received a bribe of N$7 000 from the wife of an incest and rape suspect in return for getting the suspect released on bail in May 2005.Judge Muller is set to give his verdict in that trial on June 4.Nakale’s trial started in March last year.