Ipula case delayed for the15th time

THE case in which a 19-year-old Windhoek resident is accused of murdering a 17-year-old Grade 10 student, Ipula Akwenye, in the capital early last year, was postponed for the fifteenth time yesterday.

With its latest postponement, the case over the killing of Akwenye on January 29 last year continues to follow a pattern that has become a norm rather than the exception in Namibia, notwithstanding the Constitution’s guarantee of a trial within a reasonable time. Repeated postponements – mostly for further Police investigations, for accused persons to find legal representation, or for the Prosecutor General to decide on the prosecution of suspects – have become a characteristic of most criminal cases in Namibia in recent years, with speedy trials increasingly rare occurrences.The Akwenye case has been no exception.Among the 15 court appearances by Akwenye’s suspected killer – he was aged 17 and a Grade 12 student at a Windhoek school at the time of the killing – his case has now been postponed eight times for further investigations, twice because the case docket was not at court, once by agreement between the prosecution and the defence, once for the purposes of bringing a bail application, and three times for a decision by Prosecutor General about the further prosecution of the suspect.One of those postponements for the PG’s decision was made in the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court in Katutura yesterday.Public Prosecutor Tuvoye Hishikushitja told Magistrate Claudia Claasen that the investigation had now been completed and that the evidence now had to be summarised and the docket forwarded to the Prosecutor General for a decision.The case was postponed to August 31.Akwenye’s alleged murderer remains in custody in the meantime.Since his arrest on January 31 last year, he has celebrated two birthdays in Police custody while awaiting the start of his trial.In one of his appearances in court in July last year, he pleaded not guilty to both counts – charges that he had murdered Akwenye, and that he had also raped her on the same date.When he pleaded, defence lawyer Jan Wessels told the court that the young suspect did not wish to make a statement to the court to set out reasons for his ‘not guilty’ pleas, but was denying all the elements of the offences being alleged on both counts.Those claims against him are that he had murdered Akwenye – who is alleged to have been some 18 weeks pregnant with the suspect’s child at that time – in a patch of open veld in Windhoek West by bludgeoning her to death with a pickaxe handle and stones.Allegations that form the foundation of the rape charge are yet to be set out in greater detail by the State.Repeated postponements – mostly for further Police investigations, for accused persons to find legal representation, or for the Prosecutor General to decide on the prosecution of suspects – have become a characteristic of most criminal cases in Namibia in recent years, with speedy trials increasingly rare occurrences.The Akwenye case has been no exception.Among the 15 court appearances by Akwenye’s suspected killer – he was aged 17 and a Grade 12 student at a Windhoek school at the time of the killing – his case has now been postponed eight times for further investigations, twice because the case docket was not at court, once by agreement between the prosecution and the defence, once for the purposes of bringing a bail application, and three times for a decision by Prosecutor General about the further prosecution of the suspect.One of those postponements for the PG’s decision was made in the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court in Katutura yesterday.Public Prosecutor Tuvoye Hishikushitja told Magistrate Claudia Claasen that the investigation had now been completed and that the evidence now had to be summarised and the docket forwarded to the Prosecutor General for a decision.The case was postponed to August 31.Akwenye’s alleged murderer remains in custody in the meantime.Since his arrest on January 31 last year, he has celebrated two birthdays in Police custody while awaiting the start of his trial.In one of his appearances in court in July last year, he pleaded not guilty to both counts – charges that he had murdered Akwenye, and that he had also raped her on the same date.When he pleaded, defence lawyer Jan Wessels told the court that the young suspect did not wish to make a statement to the court to set out reasons for his ‘not guilty’ pleas, but was denying all the elements of the offences being alleged on both counts.Those claims against him are that he had murdered Akwenye – who is alleged to have been some 18 weeks pregnant with the suspect’s child at that time – in a patch of open veld in Windhoek West by bludgeoning her to death with a pickaxe handle and stones.Allegations that form the foundation of the rape charge are yet to be set out in greater detail by the State.