Simon’s troubles rev up

BOXER Harry Simon has landed in hot water again – he was arrested for alleged drunken driving this weekend.

The former world champion boxer was taken into custody at Kuisebmond, Walvis Bay, early on Sunday morning and was released on N$500 bail later that day. He made a brief appearance in the Walvis Bay Magistrate’s Court on Monday on two charges: driving under the influence of alcohol and refusing to have blood samples taken at the time of his arrest.Magistrate Peter Nangula postponed the case to January 10 2007.Simon had no legal representative present on Monday.Just over a year ago, Simon spent a week in the same courtroom, fighting a charge of culpable homicide that stemmed from a horrendous head-on collision between Swakopmund and Langstrand in 2002, in which three Belgian tourists lost their lives.Four other members of the tourist group sustained serious injuries.In August last year, Simon was found guilty of culpable homicide.Magistrate Gert Retief sentenced Simon to four years’ imprisonment, of which two years were suspended.He ruled that Simon’s driver’s licence would not be revoked while an appeal against the conviction and sentence was still pending.The High Court recently approved the State’s application to also appeal against the sentence, which the prosecution deemed “too lenient”.Simon, in his boxing prime known as ‘The Terminator’, was also involved in a fatal car accident between Swakopmund and Usakos in April 2001.A Swakopmund couple, Siegfried and Elke Kessler, died.The trial sparked controversy when blood samples taken from Simon and the purported driver of Simon’s vehicle, Hans Hauwanga, disappeared.He made a brief appearance in the Walvis Bay Magistrate’s Court on Monday on two charges: driving under the influence of alcohol and refusing to have blood samples taken at the time of his arrest.Magistrate Peter Nangula postponed the case to January 10 2007.Simon had no legal representative present on Monday.Just over a year ago, Simon spent a week in the same courtroom, fighting a charge of culpable homicide that stemmed from a horrendous head-on collision between Swakopmund and Langstrand in 2002, in which three Belgian tourists lost their lives.Four other members of the tourist group sustained serious injuries.In August last year, Simon was found guilty of culpable homicide.Magistrate Gert Retief sentenced Simon to four years’ imprisonment, of which two years were suspended.He ruled that Simon’s driver’s licence would not be revoked while an appeal against the conviction and sentence was still pending.The High Court recently approved the State’s application to also appeal against the sentence, which the prosecution deemed “too lenient”.Simon, in his boxing prime known as ‘The Terminator’, was also involved in a fatal car accident between Swakopmund and Usakos in April 2001.A Swakopmund couple, Siegfried and Elke Kessler, died.The trial sparked controversy when blood samples taken from Simon and the purported driver of Simon’s vehicle, Hans Hauwanga, disappeared.