Teko trio’s trial resumes in October

The continuation of the case of the three people being tried in the High Court for fraud committed at the finance ministry in 2009, will resume in mid-October this year.
The trio - Namibians Teckla Lameck, 48, and Jerobeam Mokaxwa, 30, as well as Chinese national Yang Fan, 39 - made another appearance before High Court Judge Christie Liebenberg in Windhoek on Monday morning when their fraud trial was remanded until 10 October.
The continuation of the trial was on Monday postponed until that date in order to allow the Supreme Court to pronounce itself on an appeal application by the group against the dismissal of their application for the recusal of Acting High Court Judge Maphios Cheda.
Judge Cheda dismissed the trio’s application for recusal in a judgment he handed down in the High Court here on 14 November 2014.
Their privately-instructed defence lawyer Sisa Namandje then approached the Supreme Court with an urgent application appealing against the dismissal of his clients’ application for Judge Cheda to be recused.
The appeal application by the three accused is still pending in the Windhoek Supreme Court.
Lameck, a former Public Service Commission (PSC) member; Mokaxwa, who is Lameck’s business partner in the Teko Trading company; as well as Yang are accused of having defrauded the Ministry of Finance of some N$120 million in 2009 in dubious circumstances.
They denied all 18 charges of fraud against them when they entered not guilty pleas at the beginning of their trial in April 2014.
The two Namibians are free on bail of N$50 000 each, while Yang is free on bail of N$1 million.
Their bail was extended until their next court appearance on 10 October 2016.
The three were arrested on 8 and 9 July 2009 by officials of the Anti-Corruption Commission in connection with the alleged scam through which the Ministry of Finance bought security-scanning equipment from a Chinese company.
About 20 people out of a total of over 80 witnesses have already testified in this trial on behalf of the State.
The trio’s bail was extended until their next court appearance in October.
State Advocate Shakwa Nyambe appeared for the prosecution.
Liebenberg adjourned the continuation of the trial until 10 October as per an agreement reached by the parties involved in the case.

NAMPA