Shaduka refused bail again

A FOURTH attempt by businessman and murder suspect Lazarus Shaduka to be released on bail ended in failure yesterday.

In a ruling given by Magistrate Claudia Claasen in the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court, the Magistrate has for a third time turned down an application from Shaduka to be granted bail. An appeal by Shaduka against an earlier refusal of bail by Magistrate Claasen similarly ended up being refused in the High Court in late October last year.Shaduka (35) is accused of murdering his wife, Selma Shaimemanya, in Windhoek on July 13 last year.It is alleged that Shaimenanya (33) died after she was shot in the back, between her shoulder blades.Shaduka’s latest bid to be given bail was based on two main grounds: that his businesses are facing financial collapse and bankruptcy because of the now more than nine months that he has been in custody, and that the Police and the prosecution have been maliciously delaying the investigation.Magistrate Claasen was not convinced by either of these arguments.While any period of pre-trial incarceration wreaks havoc in an accused person’s life, it is also a painful reality in Namibia today that eight months of postponements in a murder case appear to be regarded as reasonable, she commented in her ruling.She further remarked that the effects that Shaduka’s detention has on the running of his businesses had been dealt with extensively in his first bail application at the end of July last year already.The Magistrate also did not find any merit in an argument that the Police and prosecution had maliciously concocted delays. This argument was mainly based on a claim from defence lawyer Hennie Barnard that the prosecution conveyed false information to the court when it asked for another postponement of the case on January 28 to await results of forensic tests that were done as part of the investigation, whereas those results were already available in September last year and had been collected by the investigating officer in October.During the latest bail application, though, the prosecution indicated that additional forensic reports were still outstanding after the forensic results had been collected by the investigator in October.Shaduka pleaded not guilty to a charge of murder on March 6. He gave no further plea explanation.During the bail application he stuck to a previous refusal to discuss the circumstances of his wife’s shooting. He also denied claims that he had initially said that his wife had committed suicide. Shaduka is scheduled to return to court on May 29, to be informed what decision the Prosecutor General has taken on the prosecution that he is facing.