Police allege ‘staged attack’ after prosecutor reports knife ambush at home
Eenhana control prosecutor Seredine Jacobs says she is living in fear after what she insists was a violent knife attack at her government house last week.
However, senior police officers have cast doubt on her account, alleging she staged the incident to influence a transfer out of the north.
Jacobs, who moved to Eenhana in May, says the alleged attack was the third attempted break-in at her home.
She maintains that last Wednesday, after falling asleep while watching TV, she was jolted awake around 23:00 by forceful banging on her dining room burglar door.
When she rushed to check the lock, she says she came face-to-face with masked intruders who slashed her wrist with what she believes was a knife.
“I tried to make sure the burglar door was locked, and that’s when one of them cut me,” she said, speaking from her living room with a bandaged arm.
She says she immediately made several phone calls, prompting the assailants to flee.
The police response, she added, has left her stunned. “They did not follow the footprints that were visible even in the morning, nor did they take fingerprints,” she claimed. “They just asked what happened and left.”
She believes the attack was targeted at her personally, not a robbery. “If they wanted to steal, why wasn’t my BMW touched?” she asked.
Robust protection needed
Jacobs links the ordeal to a broader pattern of risk faced by prosecutors. Having practised law since 2001, she says threats and intimidation are not new – recalling a past incident in Henties Bay when an accused jumped from the dock and blocked the courtroom door.
“I am not easy to bully, but it does not mean prosecutors should be left to defend ourselves. We need protection.”
The attack she described took place shortly after a control prosecutor in Ondangwa – Justine Shiweda – was shot and doused with acid, and amid a nationwide go-slow by magistrates and court officials citing poor security and working conditions.
Police cry foul
But senior law enforcement sources told Namibian Sun that they do not believe Jacobs’s account.
Several high-ranking officers accuse her of staging both the assault and attempted break-in.
“She just took advantage of the situation that is currently going on [Ondangwa attack]. She is not happy in Eenhana and wants to go live with her family,” one senior officer alleged.
Prosecutors may be transferred anywhere in the country at the discretion of the prosecutor-general, with little say in the matter – a system some officers claim Jacobs is trying to challenge.
Attempts to obtain official comment from Ohangwena regional commander Commissioner Ottilie Kashuupulwa were unsuccessful. Kashuupulwa visited Jacobs’s residence on Thursday, hours after she reported the attack.
‘Why would I injure myself?’
Jacobs said she is shocked by police suggestions that she fabricated the attack.
“How can anyone believe I would stage a burglary and cut my own wrist? I have been transferred all over the country since 2001,” she said. “Why would I put myself and my family through that?”
She warned that the dismissal of her account by police undermines trust between prosecutors and law enforcement and further endangers officials whose lives are already at risk.
“Since the police did not investigate and now think I staged it, are they waiting for me to be killed? How must prosecutors feel when we are told we cannot be trusted, while we live in fear? It is very sad.”
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However, senior police officers have cast doubt on her account, alleging she staged the incident to influence a transfer out of the north.
Jacobs, who moved to Eenhana in May, says the alleged attack was the third attempted break-in at her home.
She maintains that last Wednesday, after falling asleep while watching TV, she was jolted awake around 23:00 by forceful banging on her dining room burglar door.
When she rushed to check the lock, she says she came face-to-face with masked intruders who slashed her wrist with what she believes was a knife.
“I tried to make sure the burglar door was locked, and that’s when one of them cut me,” she said, speaking from her living room with a bandaged arm.
She says she immediately made several phone calls, prompting the assailants to flee.
The police response, she added, has left her stunned. “They did not follow the footprints that were visible even in the morning, nor did they take fingerprints,” she claimed. “They just asked what happened and left.”
She believes the attack was targeted at her personally, not a robbery. “If they wanted to steal, why wasn’t my BMW touched?” she asked.
Robust protection needed
Jacobs links the ordeal to a broader pattern of risk faced by prosecutors. Having practised law since 2001, she says threats and intimidation are not new – recalling a past incident in Henties Bay when an accused jumped from the dock and blocked the courtroom door.
“I am not easy to bully, but it does not mean prosecutors should be left to defend ourselves. We need protection.”
The attack she described took place shortly after a control prosecutor in Ondangwa – Justine Shiweda – was shot and doused with acid, and amid a nationwide go-slow by magistrates and court officials citing poor security and working conditions.
Police cry foul
But senior law enforcement sources told Namibian Sun that they do not believe Jacobs’s account.
Several high-ranking officers accuse her of staging both the assault and attempted break-in.
“She just took advantage of the situation that is currently going on [Ondangwa attack]. She is not happy in Eenhana and wants to go live with her family,” one senior officer alleged.
Prosecutors may be transferred anywhere in the country at the discretion of the prosecutor-general, with little say in the matter – a system some officers claim Jacobs is trying to challenge.
Attempts to obtain official comment from Ohangwena regional commander Commissioner Ottilie Kashuupulwa were unsuccessful. Kashuupulwa visited Jacobs’s residence on Thursday, hours after she reported the attack.
‘Why would I injure myself?’
Jacobs said she is shocked by police suggestions that she fabricated the attack.
“How can anyone believe I would stage a burglary and cut my own wrist? I have been transferred all over the country since 2001,” she said. “Why would I put myself and my family through that?”
She warned that the dismissal of her account by police undermines trust between prosecutors and law enforcement and further endangers officials whose lives are already at risk.
“Since the police did not investigate and now think I staged it, are they waiting for me to be killed? How must prosecutors feel when we are told we cannot be trusted, while we live in fear? It is very sad.”
- [email protected]
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