No bail for record heist attempt suspect

A FORMER prison guard who has been charged with armed robbery over a record attempted cash-in-transit heist in Windhoek almost two months ago is set to remain in Police custody after his bail bid failed on Friday.

A month after a gang of alleged robbers failed to pull off what would have been the largest cash heist in Namibia’s history, the first man to be arrested in connection with the robbery attempt, former prison warder Augustinus Balzer, launched an application to be released on bail in the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court on June 25.Balzer’s hopes of being released from Police custody were dashed on Friday, though, when Magistrate Helvi Shilemba turned down his bail application.Balzer, who is employed as a senior security officer with G4S Security Services, the security company whose premises in Windhoek’s Andimba Toivo ya Toivo Street was the scene of the robbery attempt on May 25, has been in Police custody since then.Two other suspects arrested after Balzer was charged, Charlie Swartz and Christiaan Mukoko, were granted bail of N$10 000 each on June 17.The three men are facing a charge of robbery with aggravating circumstances in connection with the alleged heist in which a gang of robbers failed to make a getaway with N$24,3 million in cash that G4S Security Services was supposed to transport on behalf of local banks. Had the heist been a success, that N$24,3 million would have been the largest amount ever stolen in a robbery in Namibia.After they were surprised at the scene, the robbers fled from the scene where they were loading cash from a strongroom onto a bakkie that was being used by them. They however left the vehicle behind at the scene, and that soon put the Police on the trail of the bakkie’s owner, Claudius Stuurman, who was found dead in Windhoek the next morning after a suspected suicide. In her ruling on Balzer’s bail application, Magistrate Shilemba recounted that the court has been told that Stuurman was an uncle of Balzer. The court was also told that the firearm with which Stuurman is claimed to have killed himself, was one of five guns allegedly stolen from the G4S Security Services premises during the robbery attempt.In an alleged suicide note that Stuurman is claimed to have left behind, he implicated Balzer and the other two charged men in the attempted robbery, the court was also told.While that note is the only evidence implicating Swartz and Mukoko, there is other evidence that could point to Balzer’s involvement in the matter, the Magistrate indicated.She noted that the court heard that on the morning of May 25, around the time that the attempted robbery was taking place, Stuurman and Balzer were in cellphone contact, and the cellphone tower that picked up both their phones was in the vicinity of the G4S Security Services premises. Balzer had allegedly bought a replacement SIM card and started using that in his cellphone two days before the incident, she also noted.The court was further told that Balzer visited the premises five days before the robbery with two other men, who were then shown where the security company’s strongroom is. Those men have not been identified yet.Balzer denies the charge, and is also disputing the claim that he had visited the scene with two unknown men five days before the robbery attempt.Magistrate Shilemba ended her ruling by noting that the Criminal Procedure Act states that even if a court is convinced that a suspect would not fail to stand his trial and would not interfere with the investigation of a case, it could still refuse to grant bail in the interest of justice.Balzer’s lawyer, Boris Isaacks, did not hide his dismay at the Magistrate’s refusal to allow Balzer’s release after giving her ruling. With the Magistrate having announced that bail was refused and that Balzer was being sent back into Police custody, Isaacks immediately rose to ask the Magistrate what the actual reason for the refusal of bail was.She told him that she had given her ruling and that was that – if he wanted to appeal against her decision, he could do so.Balzer and his two co-accused have to appear in the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court again on August 11.