A bail appeal by one of the men accused of carrying out a fatal robbery at the head office of the diamond company Namib Desert Diamonds (Namdia) in January last year has been dismissed in the Windhoek High Court.
The bail appeal of former Namdia protection officer Joel Angula (47) was dismissed by judges Philanda Christiaan and Naomi Shivute in a judgement delivered on Friday.
Angula appealed against a ruling in which his application to be granted bail was turned down in the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court in February.
Christiaan, who wrote the appeal judgement, concluded that none of the grounds on which Angula appealed against the bail ruling established that the ruling was wrong.
Christiaan said she was “not persuaded that the magistrate committed a material misdirection of fact or law, took irrelevant considerations into account, failed to consider relevant considerations, or otherwise exercised her discretion wrongly”.
The magistrate who turned down Angula’s bail application found that the state proved it had evidence on which he could be convicted, and that it would not be in the interests of justice to grant bail to him.
Angula and two co-accused, Sam Shololo (51) and Samuel Shipanga (34), are facing 10 charges, including counts of murder, robbery with aggravating circumstances, conspiring to commit robbery and murder, theft of diamonds and possession of unpolished diamonds, in connection with an armed robbery that took place at the state-owned Namdia’s head office in Windhoek on 18 January last year.
A security officer employed by Namdia, Francis Eiseb (58), was killed when he was shot in the head during the robbery.
One of the alleged robbers, Max Endjala (43), also died of a gunshot injury at the scene of the robbery.
The state is alleging that 512 parcels of diamonds, weighing 51 725 carats and valued at N$335.6 million, were stolen during the heist. It is also alleged that 452 parcels of diamonds, weighing 47 250 carats and valued at N$295 million, were not recovered after the robbery and remain missing.
The state is further alleging that 13 parcels of uncut diamonds, valued at about N$4.7 million, were found hidden at Angula’s house in Windhoek a day after the heist.
During his bail hearing, Angula denied knowledge of the diamonds allegedly found at his residence and claimed the gemstones had been planted there by the police, Christiaan recounted in her judgement.
She also recounted that according to the state, a witness has made a statement to the police in which he said he had a meeting with Angula and Endjala at a sport club in Windhoek during 2024, and that during that meeting Angula aired a plan to carry out a heist at Namdia and invited the witness to take part in the planned robbery.
During the bail hearing, Angula told the court that Endjala, who was his cousin, and Shololo, described as his uncle, tied him up during the robbery, Christiaan noted as well.
Christiaan concluded that the bail hearing magistrate did not accept the state’s evidence uncritically, and did not misdirect herself when she found that the state had shown it had evidence implicating Angula. Defence lawyer Veiko Alexander represented Angula in the bail hearing and with the appeal.
Deputy prosecutor general Johannes Kalipi represented the state.
