Ivory-dealing case back in court today

A CAPRIVI Region resident is set to be sentenced in the Katima Mulilo Regional Court today on a charge of dealing in ivory.

A trial that started almost five years ago and was then interrupted for more than three years after the suspect disappeared, finally neared its end with the conviction of Mufoka Morgan Kalwizi yesterday.Kalwizi (40), a resident of Makanga, a village about 70 kilometres southwest of Katima Mulilo, was charged under the Controlled Game Products Proclamation of 1980 with dealing in or possessing elephant parts.It was alleged that on December 27 2002 Kalwizi had 10 elephant tusks in his possession. The ivory weighed some 79,95 kilograms and was valued at about N$70 080 at the time.Kalwizi pleaded not guilty when his trial state before Magistrate Naomi Shivute on September 14 2004.All the evidence had been placed before the Magistrate and the court’s judgement was being awaited when Kalwizi did not turn up at court on February 24 2006.Kalwizi was re-arrested only on April 15 this year.Yesterday he was back in the dock before Magistrate Shivute to hear that he had been convicted on the charge of dealing in ivory.According to the evidence, Kalwizi told someone that he had some elephant tusks that he wanted to sell. The person made a report about this to the Police.The person then also led Police officers, who by then had gone under cover as supposed ivory buyers, to Kalwizi.Kalwizi led the under-cover officers to a spot where the tusks had been buried, the court heard. He dug up the ivory and a deal was concluded – and then he was arrested.He however claimed that, while he knew about the ivory, it did not belong to him.Kalwizi is conducting his own defence.