Farm massacre suspect gets bail

THE fourth and last person to be arrested in connection with the killing of eight people at a farm between Rehoboth and Kalkrand in March last year was granted bail of N$10 000 in the High Court in Windhoek yesterday.

Stoney Neidel (29) has spent two-and-a-half months in custody since his arrest at the end of March this year in connection with the massacre at the farm Kareeboomkolk in the Mariental District on March 4 and 5 last year. He applied to the High Court to be released on bail almost two weeks ago.Yesterday he heard that his application had succeeded.Judges Louis Muller and Sylvester Mainga agreed that he could be released if he posted bail of N$10 000.They also ordered that he would report to the Rehoboth Police between 17h00 and 19h00 daily.He was warned not to interfere with, approach or talk to any of the prospective State witnesses who are listed in the indictment that Neidel and his co-accused will face at their eventual trial, and was told that he has to attend all further pre-trial sessions for his case in the High Court.One of those pre-trial hearings took place shortly after the judgement on Neidel’s bail application had been delivered.During the pre-trial appearance – the second that Neidel and his co-accused have have made in the High Court – Deputy Prosecutor General Antonia Verhoef told Acting Judge Annel Silungwe that it appears at this stage that the trial would take place only from the middle of February next year until mid-March.In the meantime, one of the prime suspects, Sylvester Beukes (21), is set to undergo psychiatric observation, Acting Judge Silungwe ordered yesterday.He made that order at the request of defence lawyer Winnie Christians, who is representing not only Neidel but also brothers Sylvester and Gavin Beukes (24), who are accused of physically carrying out the massacre at Kareeboomkolk.Christians asked Acting Judge Silungwe to refer Sylvester Beukes for psychiatric observation with the aim of determining his mental state at the time of his alleged offences, and also to see if he is fit to stand trial.It had come to his knowledge that Beukes has some psychological problems, and that a doctor that Beukes had seen suggested that he should see a psychiatrist, Christians told the court.Beukes had indeed seen a medical doctor, Verhoef added.That was at Mariental in late January, and that doctor had stated in a report, in which he recommended that Beukes should be referred to the Psychiatric Unit of the Windhoek Central Hospital, that Beukes was exhibiting “aggressive behaviour”, “homicidal tendencies” and insomnia, Verhoef said.She did not object to Beukes’s referral for psychiatric observation.Neidel, the Beukes brothers, and the fourth accused in the case, Justus Christiaan (‘Shorty’) Erasmus (28), now have to make a third pre-trial appearance in the High Court on July 13.In the indictment the four men face, the State alleges that Erasmus conspired with Sylvester Beukes during 2003 already to have not only Erasmus’s parents, Elzabé and Justus Christiaan Erasmus, but also his sister, Yolande Erasmus, killed.It is claimed that this alleged plan was only carried out on March 4 and 5 last year, when the Erasmus couple and six other people – farmworkers and relatives of theirs, including a pregnant woman and two children aged six and four respectively – were shot dead at farm Kareeboomkolk.Neidel was initially arrested after a large hoard of items the Beukes brothers are alleged to have stolen from the farm after the massacre was found at his house at Rehoboth and at the communal farm where he also had a home west of Rehoboth.After he had been questioned, and had co-operated with the Police, he was however again released without charge, only to be arrested and charged again on instructions of the Prosecutor General at the end of March this year.During his bail application, Verhoef argued that there was evidence that Neidel had been part of a prior arrangement with the Beukes brothers, and as a result was involved in all the crimes committed, even if he was not physically present at Kareeboomkolk.However, commented Judge Muller in the court’s judgement on the evidence placed before him and Judge Mainga, the likelihood that Neidel may be convicted of the murders, seems doubtful.With no claim being made that he would abscond if released on bail, it would not be fair to keep him incarcerated until the trial starts, Judge Muller stated.Erasmus is also still free on bail of N$20 000.He applied to the High Court to be released on bail almost two weeks ago.Yesterday he heard that his application had succeeded.Judges Louis Muller and Sylvester Mainga agreed that he could be released if he posted bail of N$10 000.They also ordered that he would report to the Rehoboth Police between 17h00 and 19h00 daily.He was warned not to interfere with, approach or talk to any of the prospective State witnesses who are listed in the indictment that Neidel and his co-accused will face at their eventual trial, and was told that he has to attend all further pre-trial sessions for his case in the High Court.One of those pre-trial hearings took place shortly after the judgement on Neidel’s bail application had been delivered.During the pre-trial appearance – the second that Neidel and his co-accused have have made in the High Court – Deputy Prosecutor General Antonia Verhoef told Acting Judge Annel Silungwe that it appears at this stage that the trial would take place only from the middle of February next year until mid-March.In the meantime, one of the prime suspects, Sylvester Beukes (21), is set to undergo psychiatric observation, Acting Judge Silungwe ordered yesterday.He made that order at the request of defence lawyer Winnie Christians, who is representing not only Neidel but also brothers Sylvester and Gavin Beukes (24), who are accused of physically carrying out the massacre at Kareeboomkolk.Christians asked Acting Judge Silungwe to refer Sylvester Beukes for psychiatric observation with the aim of determining his mental state at the time of his alleged offences, and also to see if he is fit to stand trial.It had come to his knowledge that Beukes has some psychological problems, and that a doctor that Beukes had seen suggested that he should see a psychiatrist, Christians told the court.Beukes had indeed seen a medical doctor, Verhoef added.That was at Mariental in late January, and that doctor had stated in a report, in which he recommended that Beukes should be referred to the Psychiatric Unit of the Windhoek Central Hospital, that Beukes was exhibiting “aggressive behaviour”, “homicidal tendencies” and insomnia, Verhoef said.She did not object to Beukes’s referral for psychiatric observation.Neidel, the Beukes brothers, and the fourth accused in the case, Justus Christiaan (‘Shorty’) Erasmus (28), now have to make a third pre-trial appearance in the High Court on July 13.In the indictment the four men face, the State alleges that Erasmus conspired with Sylvester Beukes during 2003 already to have not only Erasmus’s parents, Elzabé and Justus Christiaan Erasmus, but also his sister, Yolande Erasmus, killed.It is claimed that this alleged plan was only carried out on March 4 and 5 last year, when the Erasmus couple and six other people – farmworkers and relatives of theirs, including a pregnant woman and two children aged six and four respectively – were shot dead at farm Kareeboomkolk.Neidel was initially arrested after a large hoard of items the Beukes brothers are alleged to have stolen from the farm after the massacre was found at his house at Rehoboth and at the communal farm where he also had a home west of Rehoboth.After he had been questioned, and had co-operated with the Police, he was however again released without charge, only to be arrested and charged again on instructions of the Prosecutor General at the end of March this year.During his bail application, Verhoef argued that there was evidence that Neidel had been part of a prior arrangement with the Beukes brothers, and as a result was involved in all the crimes committed, even if he was not physically present at Kareeboomkolk.However, commented Judge Muller in the court’s judgement on the evidence placed before him and Judge Mainga, the likelihood that Neidel may be convicted of the murders, seems doubtful.With no claim being made that he would abscond if released on bail, it would not be fair to keep him incarcerated until the trial starts, Judge Muller stated.Erasmus is also still free on bail of N$20 000.