Further delay in cash heist trial

AFTER barely a day of proceedings in the High Court in Windhoek, the repeatedly-delayed trial of the six men facing charges in connection with a multimillion-dollar cash-in-transit heist near Windhoek at the end of 2004 was again postponed this week.

The trial, which started in January 2010 and was then interrupted early the next month due to the withdrawal of a defence lawyer from the matter, resumed before Judge Naomi Shivute on Monday. On Tuesday, after five State witnesses had testified in the matter, Deputy Prosecutor General Belinda Wantenaar asked the judge to again postpone the trial in order to give the prosecution more time to arrange for the attendance of witnesses who are currently in South Africa.Wantenaar’s request drew objections from the defence lawyers involved in the trial, but in the end Judge Shivute granted the postponement, although she expressed concern about the slow pace at which the trial has been moving and cautioned the prosecution to now get its house in order.With Judge Shivute scheduled to be engaged in other trials up to the end of November, the trial has been postponed to the three-week period from January 21 to February 8 2013.The six men are accused of having played a role in an armed robbery in which N$5,735 million was allegedly stolen from a cash-in-transit vehicle in the Brakwater area north of Windhoek in the early morning hours of December 29 2004.On trial before Judge Shivute are Jan Julius (40), who was one of the two security company employees travelling in the vehicle when the alleged heist took place, Jason Awene (45), who is also known as ‘Kilingi’ and who is alleged to have been the robber who carried out the heist after Julius picked him up as a supposed hitch-hiker, George Jambeinge (41), Mateus Hauwanga (41), Benedictus Kasimbingwe (48) and Elikana Nghimwena (39).The six suspects pleaded not guilty to a charge of robbery with aggravating circumstances at the start of their trial on January 19 2010.They are free on bail.