Gem suspect’s sticky situation unfolds

THE trial of former Namdeb employee James Vilho Auala, who denies that he stole diamonds worth almost half a million Namibia dollars from his employer at Oranjemund three years ago, was postponed to late in May in the High Court in Windhoek this week.

Auala (31) is accused of stealing 28 unpolished diamonds, weighing 61,91 carats and valued at N$438 220, from Namdeb at Oranjemund on January 18 2005. In his trial before Acting Judge Christie Liebenberg he faces charges of theft of unpolished diamonds, alternatively possession of unpolished diamonds, malicious damage to property and escaping from Police custody before being locked up in a prison or Police cell.Auala has admitted guilt only on the last charge, in which he was accused of escaping from an interviewing room at the office of Namdeb’s investigations department at Oranjemund shortly after he had been detained on suspicion of diamond theft.In surveillance camera footage shown to Acting Judge Liebenberg, Auala could be seen grabbing the handbag of Police Inspector Maria Louw, who is a member of the Police’s Protected Resources Unit, and pushing Louw out of his way as he scrambled to get to the window of the office where she and he were alone after he had been detained.He then jumped out of the window with the Inspector’s handbag.According to testimony heard by Acting Judge Liebenberg, Auala was soon rearrested, though.Louw’s handbag was also retrieved.In it was an envelope that Louw had put there.In the envelope was a suspicious object that members of Namdeb’s security staff claimed they had seen falling from Auala’s shorts after he had passed through a search and X-ray facility where people have to be screened when they exit Namdeb’s mining area at Oranjemund.According to instructions from Auala that defence lawyer Profysen Muluti has put to prosecution witnesses in the trial, the object that the Namdeb security officers claim to have seen falling from Auala’s shorts was allegedly placed at the scene by the security officers themselves as part of a plan to trap and frame Auala.According to Muluti, Auala’s version was that he had decided that he would take a blob of Prestik sticky putty through the X-ray facility “to show that the security system was not perfect” and that “it is possible for a person to pass through carrying an object without an X-ray detecting that person”.That the X-ray system had a blind spot, with the effect that the X-rays used in the system did not cover the entire cubicle, was conceded by prosecution witness Karel du Toit, who is a Namdeb security officer and investigations supervisor at Oranjemund.He told Acting Judge Liebenberg that Auala was first seen passing through the security system with a suspicious object on January 10 2005.He was seen on a surveillance camera taking that object with him into an X-ray cubicle, where he stuck the object on the side panel of the cubicle and again removed it and took it along with him after the X-ray examination had been completed.The side panel onto which the object was stuck is not covered by the X-ray, Du Toit said.He related that after that incident, when Auala managed to pass through the security system without being stopped, it was decided to keep a closer eye on him.On January 18 2005, Auala again had an object that looked similar to the one he had with him eight days earlier.Surveillance camera footage shown to Acting Liebenberg clearly shows Auala sticking this object onto the side panel of the X-ray cubicle.He can also be seen removing the object from the side panel just before leaving the cubicle.According to Muluti, though, it was just a piece of Prestik, with nothing inside, and Auala left this object stuck to a wall between the X-ray cubicle and a so-called holding room that is further on in the security section.Du Toit and fellow security officers Epaphras Simon and Andries van Zyl disputed this, though.They insisted that they saw an object, looking like the one Auala could be seen with in the X-ray cubicle, fall from his shorts after they had stopped him as he left the X-ray unit.At one stage, Muluti told the witness that Auala would testify that the blob of Prestik he was carrying with him as he went into the X-ray cubicle did not contain 28 unpolished diamonds.”What do you say to that?” Muluti asked him.”I will say he is lying,” Du Toit replied.Van Zyl was just as adamant when Muluti told him that according to Auala, Namdeb security officers placed the piece of Prestik in which 28 diamonds are claimed to have been found at the spot on a floor where Louw came to find it after she had been summoned by the security officers.”I would say it’s impossible to happen,” was Van Zyl’s response to that scenario.”Because I saw that object fall from his trousers,” Van Zyl added.on May 27, State advocate Orben Sibeya has indicated to the court.Auala remains free on bail.In his trial before Acting Judge Christie Liebenberg he faces charges of theft of unpolished diamonds, alternatively possession of unpolished diamonds, malicious damage to property and escaping from Police custody before being locked up in a prison or Police cell.Auala has admitted guilt only on the last charge, in which he was accused of escaping from an interviewing room at the office of Namdeb’s investigations department at Oranjemund shortly after he had been detained on suspicion of diamond theft.In surveillance camera footage shown to Acting Judge Liebenberg, Auala could be seen grabbing the handbag of Police Inspector Maria Louw, who is a member of the Police’s Protected Resources Unit, and pushing Louw out of his way as he scrambled to get to the window of the office where she and he were alone after he had been detained.He then jumped out of the window with the Inspector’s handbag.According to testimony heard by Acting Judge Liebenberg, Auala was soon rearrested, though.Louw’s handbag was also retrieved.In it was an envelope that Louw had put there.In the envelope was a suspicious object that members of Namdeb’s security staff claimed they had seen falling from Auala’s shorts after he had passed through a search and X-ray facility where people have to be screened when they exit Namdeb’s mining area at Oranjemund.According to instructions from Auala that defence lawyer Profysen Muluti has put to prosecution witnesses in the trial, the object that the Namdeb security officers claim to have seen falling from Auala’s shorts was allegedly placed at the scene by the security officers themselves as part of a plan to trap and frame Auala.According to Muluti, Auala’s version was that he had decided that he would take a blob of Prestik sticky putty through the X-ray facility “to show that the security system was not perfect” and that “it is possible for a person to pass through carrying an object without an X-ray detecting that person”.That the X-ray system had a blind spot, with the effect that the X-rays used in the system did not cover the entire cubicle, was conceded by prosecution witness Karel du Toit, who is a Namdeb security officer and investigations supervisor at Oranjemund.He told Acting Judge Liebenberg that Auala was first seen passing through the security system with a suspicious object on January 10 2005.He was seen on a surveillance camera taking that object with him into an X-ray cubicle, where he stuck the object on the side panel of the cubicle and again removed it and took it along with him after the X-ray examination had been completed.The side panel onto which the object was stuck is not covered by the X-ray, Du Toit said.He related that after that incident, when Auala managed to pass through the security system without being stopped, it was decided to keep a closer eye on him.On January 18 2005, Auala again had an object that looked similar to the one he had with him eight days earlier.Surveillance camera footage shown to Acting Liebenberg clearly shows Auala sticking this object onto the side panel of the X-ray cubicle.He can also be seen removing the object from the side panel just before leaving the cubicle.According to Muluti, though, it was just a piece of Prestik, with nothing inside, and Auala left this object stuck to a wall between the X-ray cubicle and a so-called holding room that is further on in the security section.Du Toit and fellow security officers Epaphras Simon and Andries van Zyl disputed this, though.They insisted that they saw an object, looking like the one Auala could be seen with in the X-ray cubicle, fall from his shorts after they had stopped him as he left the X-ray unit.At one stage, Muluti told the witness that Auala would testify that the blob of Prestik he was carrying with him as he went into the X-ray cubicle did not contain 28 unpolished diamonds.”What do you say to that?” Muluti asked him.”I will say he is lying,” Du Toit replied.Van Zyl was just as adamant when Muluti told him that according to Auala, Namdeb security officers placed the piece of Prestik in which 28 diamonds are claimed to have been found at the spot on a floor where Louw came to find it after she had been summoned by the security officers.”I would say it’s impossible to happen,” was Van Zyl’s response to that scenario.”Because I saw that object fall from his trousers,” Van Zyl added.on May 27, State advocate Orben Sibeya has indicated to the court.Auala remains free on bail.