State seeks appeal in treason trial

The State alleges that the High Court judge presiding over the Caprivi treason trial erred by allowing 32 accused persons to “boycott” the court and added that this was bias on the part of Judge Elton Hoff, who heard the case. The State says this seriously jeopardised and damaged its case as witnesses could not identify accused persons, linking them to the crime scenes. The 32 accused persons refused to go to court during the State's presentation of their case. Deputy prosecutor-general Lourens Campher submitted these arguments before Judge Christie Liebenberg when he applied for leave to appeal against the acquittal of 25 of the 43 accused. The 25 were discharged by Hoff in February 2013, in a ruling given after the prosecution had closed its case. Hoff acquitted 16 other accused persons in September 2015. The State's request to be allowed to appeal to the Supreme Court is primarily based on its view that some of its evidence was incorrectly ruled out during the trial. This includes evidence of the record of bail hearings that took place at the Grootfontein Magistrate's Court, the record of plea proceedings during which one of the accused admitted guilt, and evidence about an alleged deployment list that showed how some of the accused had been assigned targets that they had to strike during the separatist attacks that took place in the Katima Mulilo area in the then Caprivi region on 2 August 1999. Campher further stated that expert evidence which had stood the test of cross-examination could possibly be admitted as it would be futile to try and challenge it again. “All possible evidence was tested in the main trial and obviously only evidence that stood the test of time will be presented,” he submitted. According to him the Supreme Court might decide to put the acquitted men on their defence to answer to the evidence against them. “If the appeal is granted and the appeal succeeds the trial has to start afresh and the accused in a fresh trial will be on warning and as such their liberty will not be affected,” he argued. Campher disputed the defence lawyers' argument that an appeal would lead to another drawn-out trial lasting more than ten years and with hundreds of witnesses. He also denied that it would be a violation of the respondents' constitutional rights. According to him the fact that the prosecution team had been involved in a serious car crash in which Miss Barnard was killed and advocates Taswald July and Herman January were seriously injured had stalled the treason trial. He added that a large number of accused had boycotted the trial and refused to attend. That resulted not only in witnesses being unable to identify them, but also caused a long delay when they finally accepted legal representation because their lawyers had to read the court record and prepare their defence. “The length of time it took to finalise the main trial was as much due to the defence lawyers as it was due to the State,” he argued. Campher emphasised that if the appeal succeeded the fresh trial would be a short one.FRED GOEIEMAN

State seeks appeal in treason trial

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Namibian Sun 2025-05-13

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State seeks appeal in treason trial

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Namibian Sun 2025-05-13

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