New date set for stalled bloodbath hearing

THE Kareeboomvloer farm massacre trial is scheduled to resume in the High Court in Windhoek from March 4 next year, the four men charged in the trial were told yesterday.

Returning to the High Court three weeks after defence lawyer Winnie Christians withdrew from their case, multiple murder suspects Sylvester and Gavin Beukes, Justus Christiaan (‘Shorty’) Erasmus and Stoney Neidel were told that their trial would continue from March 4 to April 11. The defence lawyers who have been instructed by the Directorate of Legal Aid to take Christians’s place also formally came on record in the trial with the appearance of the four charged men before Judge President Petrus Damaseb yesterday.Neidel (30) will from now on be represented by Boris Isaacks, Gavin Beukes (26) by Titus Mbaeva and Sylvester Beukes (22) by Titus Ipumbu.Erasmus (30) is still being represented by Petrie Theron, who has been acting for him since the time of his arrest in mid-March 2005.Christians withdrew from the trial on October 31, after Deputy Prosecutor General Antonia Verhoef, who is representing the State, had repeatedly told the Judge President that she was concerned that, in her opinion, Christians was facing a conflict of interests in respect of his three clients.Christians disputed to the end that such a conflict of interest existed, but by the close of October Neidel in effect forced a decision on him by informing him that he preferred to be represented by another lawyer for the rest of the trial.Neidel, the Beukes brothers and Erasmus are facing 15 charges.These include eight counts of murder.They are accused of having been involved in the killing of eight people at farm Kareeboomvloer between Rehoboth and Kalkrand between March 4 and 5 2005.It is alleged that the killings at the farm, which was owned by Erasmus’s parents, were carried out by the Beukes brothers after Erasmus had asked Sylvester Beukes to murder his parents.Various items that were stolen from the farm after the killings were later stored at Areb, a farm west of Rehoboth, where Neidel was living.The trial started before the Judge President on March 1 this year with all four charged men pleading not guilty to all charges.By early April, though, Christians placed it on record on behalf of Sylvester Beukes that Beukes was admitting that he had killed the eight people – including Erasmus’s parents – who lost their lives at Kareeboomvloer over that deadly weekend in early March 2005.Gavin Beukes has claimed in a plea explanation at the start of the trial that the crimes that were committed at Kareeboomvloer were carried out by Sylvester Beukes, who had held him too at gunpoint and tied him to a security door at the farm.With the entry of three new defence counsel into the trial, a possibility exists that the new lawyers could ask the Judge President to recall to the witness stand prosecution witnesses who have already testified so that they can be cross-examined further by the defence.Verhoef asked yesterday that the defence lawyers should notify the prosecution by February 11 at the latest if they want to recall any witnesses so that the State can get its house in order in time for the continuation of the trial.The Beukes brothers remain in custody until the trial continues.Erasmus and Neidel are both free on bail.The defence lawyers who have been instructed by the Directorate of Legal Aid to take Christians’s place also formally came on record in the trial with the appearance of the four charged men before Judge President Petrus Damaseb yesterday.Neidel (30) will from now on be represented by Boris Isaacks, Gavin Beukes (26) by Titus Mbaeva and Sylvester Beukes (22) by Titus Ipumbu.Erasmus (30) is still being represented by Petrie Theron, who has been acting for him since the time of his arrest in mid-March 2005. Christians withdrew from the trial on October 31, after Deputy Prosecutor General Antonia Verhoef, who is representing the State, had repeatedly told the Judge President that she was concerned that, in her opinion, Christians was facing a conflict of interests in respect of his three clients.Christians disputed to the end that such a conflict of interest existed, but by the close of October Neidel in effect forced a decision on him by informing him that he preferred to be represented by another lawyer for the rest of the trial.Neidel, the Beukes brothers and Erasmus are facing 15 charges.These include eight counts of murder.They are accused of having been involved in the killing of eight people at farm Kareeboomvloer between Rehoboth and Kalkrand between March 4 and 5 2005.It is alleged that the killings at the farm, which was owned by Erasmus’s parents, were carried out by the Beukes brothers after Erasmus had asked Sylvester Beukes to murder his parents.Various items that were stolen from the farm after the killings were later stored at Areb, a farm west of Rehoboth, where Neidel was living.The trial started before the Judge President on March 1 this year with all four charged men pleading not guilty to all charges.By early April, though, Christians placed it on record on behalf of Sylvester Beukes that Beukes was admitting that he had killed the eight people – including Erasmus’s parents – who lost their lives at Kareeboomvloer over that deadly weekend in early March 2005.Gavin Beukes has claimed in a plea explanation at the start of the trial that the crimes that were committed at Kareeboomvloer were carried out by Sylvester Beukes, who had held him too at gunpoint and tied him to a security door at the farm.With the entry of three new defence counsel into the trial, a possibility exists that the new lawyers could ask the Judge President to recall to the witness stand prosecution witnesses who have already testified so that they can be cross-examined further by the defence.Verhoef asked yesterday that the defence lawyers should notify the prosecution by February 11 at the latest if they want to recall any witnesses so that the State can get its house in order in time for the continuation of the trial.The Beukes brothers remain in custody until the trial continues.Erasmus and Neidel are both free on bail.