High treason retrial delay continues

THE eight men still facing charges in the second Caprivi high treason case will have to wait until at least next month to hear when their retrial should start in the Windhoek High Court.

The eight high treason accused, who went through a first trial in the High Court between 2005 and 2007, made a short court appearance before acting judge Petrus Unengu on Monday, to be informed that the two defence lawyers representing them still need to clarify some issues that could curtail their second trial before a definite starting date for the retrial can be set.

Their case was postponed to 12 June, with the starting date of their trial expected to be decided at their next court appearance then.

The eight men are due to stand trial on charges of high treason, sedition, public violence, and illegal possession of ammunition, and two counts of importing, possessing or supplying weaponry and ammunition for such weapons.

All of the charges are based on allegations that the eight were members of an armed secessionist organisation in the former Caprivi region, the Caprivi Liberation Army, or associated with the organisation, and conspired to overthrow the Namibian government in the region between September 1998 and December 2003.

Three of the eight accused have by now spent more than 14 years in jail following their arrests, while five of them have been in jail for more than 13 years. Frederick Ntambilwa was arrested in July 2002, Hoster Ntombo and John Tembwe in September 2002, and Progress Munuma, Shine Samulandela, Manuel Makendano, Alex Mushakwa and Diamond Salufu were arrested in December 2003.

Their first trial, in which four co-accused were in the dock with them, was a tumultuous process marked by courtroom protests, disruptions and boycotts by the accused, and ended with 10 of them being convicted of high treason and sentenced to prison terms of either 30 or 32 years each in August 2007.

The Supreme Court set aside their convictions almost six years later, in July 2013, and sent their case back to the High Court for a retrial, after finding that the judge who presided over the first trial should have recused himself from the matter when he was asked to do so following his dismissal of a jurisdiction challenge raised by the accused.

That jurisdiction challenge was based on a claim that eleven of the accused involved in the first trial had been brought to Namibia illegally by being abducted from Botswana before they were arrested and charged by the Namibian authorities.

The same jurisdiction challenge was raised before acting judge Unengu at the end of June 2014, and dismissed by him in November 2014.

An appeal against acting judge Unengu’s ruling then went to the Supreme Court, which ruled in August last year that Namibian officials violated international law when they brought one of the accused, Boster Samuele, from Botswana to Namibia in December 2002.

As a result of that finding, the court ordered a permanent stay of prosecution against Samuele in respect of the charges he was facing – leaving the remaining current eight accused to face a second trial on the same charges on which they were tried previously.

Defence lawyer Ilse Agenbach is representing Munuma, Samulandela, Makendano, Mushakwa, Salufu and Ntombo on instructions from the Directorate of Legal Aid. Ntambilwa and Tembwe are represented by defence lawyer Jorge Neves, also on legal aid instructions.

State advocate Neville Wamambo is appearing for the prosecution.

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