A Company approached to translate evidence in a terrorism and high treason case pending in the High Court from Arabic into English has given a quotation of N$462 000 for the work it is asked to do.
A procurement process would have to be followed before the requested translation can be done, deputy prosecutor general Lourens Campher informed deputy judge president Hannelie Prinsloo during an appearance by high treason and terrorism accused Jona Hangula (33) in the High Court at Windhoek Correctional Facility yesterday.
The Namibian Police would be responsible for paying for the translation, Campher also told Prinsloo.
Campher says according to a quotation received by the police, a company willing to do the required translation is asking about N$300 per page of material that has to be translated.
The company has also indicated that it would need about 10 working days to carry out the required translation, Campher says.
The translation would have to be done by someone who is a sworn translator of the High Court for Arabic and English, defence lawyer Joas Neemwatya, who is representing Hangula, also notes.
Hangula is awaiting trial on 19 charges, including a count of high treason, a charge of terrorism, a count of funding terrorist activities, two counts of recruiting persons as members of designated organisations or to participate in terrorist activities, and a charge of membership of an organisation involved in terrorist or proliferation activities.
The five terrorism-related counts are charges in terms of Namibia’s Prevention and Combating of Terrorist and Proliferation Activities Act of 2014. Hangula is the first person to have been charged under the act.
In the charges, it is alleged that Hangula conspired to carry out a violent take-over of the authority of the state in Namibia and establish an Islamic state in the country between 2015 and 2020.
It is also alleged that Hangula showed support for designated terrorist organisations such as Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (Isis), Boko Haram in Nigeria, Isis in Mozambique and groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo and in the Republic of Congo, and that he attempted to recruit support for those organisations and encouraged people to join the organisations.
Hangula was arrested in June 2023, and has been held in custody since his arrest.
An application by him to be granted bail was dismissed in the Windhoek High Court in September last year.
Hangula’s next court appearance is on 23 September.
