A former Namib Desert Diamonds (Namdia) employee accused of involvement in a fatal diamond heist at Namdia’s Windhoek head office in January this year says the armed robbery was carried out by two of his relatives.
Testifying during a bail hearing in the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday, former Namdia protection officer Joel Angula (46) said Max Endjala (43), who died of a gunshot injury during the robbery on 18 January, was his maternal cousin and best friend.
Angula also said Sam Shololo (50), his co-accused in the criminal case in which he is charged in connection with the robbery, and he are relatives, and that Shololo visited the Namdia premises in the past to collect his (Angula’s) car to travel to a farm.
During the robbery, he was tied up and a bag was placed over his head, Angula told magistrate Helvi Shikalepo.
When deputy prosecutor general Johannes Kalipi asked him which of the robbers tied him up and who placed a bag over his head, Angula answered: “Max was the one that held me, while Sam was tying me up.”
Angula later tried to backtrack on the part of his testimony in which he implicated Shololo and Endjala, and claimed he had mentioned their names because they had been mentioned by Kalipi first.
However, Kalipi did not mention names in his question about which of the robbers had tied Angula up and who had placed a bag over his head.
During his cross-examination, Kalipi put it to Angula that a witness has informed a police investigator he was present at a meeting during which Endjala and Angula discussed a plan to carry out a robbery at Namdia’s premises.
“I have no knowledge of something like that,” Angula said.
Kalipi also said Angula told the police after the heist that he did not know the robbers. Angula told the court he had been a member of the Namibian Police from 2004 to 2018, before he was employed by the state-owned Namdia as a protection officer. The state is alleging that diamonds weighing 51 725 carats and valued at N$335.6 million were stolen during the robbery.
A Namdia security officer, Francis Eiseb (58), was shot and killed during the heist.
MISSING DIAMONDS
Kalipi informed the magistrate the state is opposing Angula’s application to be granted bail, with the grounds for the state’s opposition including the seriousness of the charges he is facing, because the state says it has a strong case against him, and because investigations are still continuing.
Diamonds weighing 47 250 carats and valued at N$295 million are still missing after the robbery, Kalipi said.
Angula is charged with eight counts, including charges of murder, robbery with aggravating circumstances, attempted murder and possession of rough and uncut diamonds. He told the court he is denying guilt on all of the charges.
In one of the charges, the state is alleging that 2 457 uncut diamonds, valued at about N$4.78 million, were found at Angula’s residence in the Khomasdal area of Windhoek a day after the heist.
Kalipi told Angula that according to the police officer in charge of the investigation of the case, bags containing diamonds were found wrapped in plastic in Angula’s boots at the house where he lived.
“I did not remove any parcel from Namdia,” Angula said about that allegation. “I’m not guilty in this.”
He also said: “One thing that I’m sure of, is I did not bring those bags into the house. It should be the police that brought them there.”
Angula further said he does not know where the diamonds said to still be missing after being stolen during the heist are.
A lot of diamonds went missing at Namdia, where police officers were at the scene, and his thoughts are that the police took those diamonds, Angula said.
He remarked: “Of all the robbers, no one left the scene. One died, one was arrested [at the scene].”
The bail hearing is scheduled to continue on 16 January.
Defence lawyers Veiko Alexander and Tuna Nhinda are representing Angula.
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