A Grootfontein resident accused of involvement with radical organisations’ alleged plans to establish an Islamic state in Namibia is denying that he wrote remarks in which he expressed support for such plans on online platforms.
Remarks on social media allegedly expressing support for an envisaged jihad or ‘holy war’ and the establishment of an Islamic state in Namibia and Angola were not made by him, Jona Hangula (32) told judge Eileen Rakow during a bail hearing in the Windhoek High Court on Thursday.
“I have nothing to do with that statement,” Hangula said when asked about an online remark in which it was said that with a population of only 2.5 million people Namibia did not have the capacity to fight against an Islamic state.
He gave the same answer when deputy prosecutor general Lourens Campher asked him about another online remark in which he allegedly suggested that a piece of land should be bought near Angola to prepare to “conquer” part of Namibia.
The prosecutor general decided in March this year to arraign Hangula in the High Court on 19 charges, including a count of high treason, a charge of terrorism, a count of funding terrorist activities, two counts of recruiting persons as members of designated organisations or to participate in terrorist activities, and a charge of membership of an organisation involved in terrorist or proliferation activities.
In the charges, it is alleged that between 2015 and 2020 Hangula conspired to carry out a violent take-over of the authority of the state in Namibia.
It is alleged that he conspired or attempted to conspire with others to overthrow the Namibian government and establish an Islamic state in the country.
It is also alleged that Hangula conspired to establish a military base in northern Namibia or southern Angola, where he intended to train people and plan future attacks against the Namibian government and population.
The state further alleges that Hangula showed support for designated terrorist organisations such as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (Isis), the Nigerian organisation Boko Haram, Isis in Mozambique and groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo and in the Republic of Congo, and that he attempted to recruit support for those organisations as well as encouraged people to join the organisations.
Hangula was arrested and charged in June 2023, and is applying to be granted bail after being held in custody for more than two years.
He told the court he converted to Islam in 2010.
The Islamic religion does not encourage the killing of innocent people, Hangula said during his testimony on Wednesday.
He also told the court on Thursday that he was involved in a company trading in charcoal and firewood since the end of 2021, and that his business partners in the company are two Somalians living in Sweden and the United Kingdom.
Payments that he received from and made to people in various countries before his arrest were made for charity, to help “Muslim brothers”, and were sometimes also linked to his business of importing cellphones and exporting dates and dried grapes from Namibia, Hangula said.
The bail hearing is continuing.
Hangula is represented by defence lawyer Wihan Brand.
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