WERNER MENGES, Windhoek | Wednesday
THE 125 men accused of high treason and other alleged offences in what is set to be Namibia’s biggest trial since Independence are set to appear in the High Court at Grootfontein tomorrow, with the ranks of their defence lawyers now reduced to one solitary attorney.
Tsumeb attorney Chris van Sittert has landed the mammoth task of appearing on behalf of all of the suspects, he confirmed to The Namibian yesterday.
His instructions to represent the entire group of 125 come in the wake of the withdrawal of other lawyers due to the inability of the cash-strapped suspects to continue to pay their legal representatives.
Efforts to raise money for the Caprivi suspects’ defence through unnamed international human rights organisations have come to nought, it has been indicated.
Most of the 125 have now been in custody for for close to two years.
They were arrested in the wake of armed attacks at Katima Mulilo on August 2 1999 which have been blamed on the Caprivi Liberation Army, which is accused of having aimed to force the separation of the Caprivi from Namibia through the use of violence.
Although both Van Sittert and Deputy Prosecutor General Lourens Campher, the leader of the three-person prosecuting team, yesterday said they wanted to see the suspects’ trial start as quickly as possible, it is expected it will be postponed again tomorrow to enable the defence to further prepare for the trial.
Tsumeb attorney Chris van Sittert has landed the mammoth task of appearing on behalf of all 125 suspects Both Campher and his colleague in the Office of Prosecutor General Hans Heyman, Louis du Pisani, who is acting in Heyman’s stead while the latter is on leave, said the State was ready to proceed with the trial.
Du Pisani added that his office was concerned that the suspects appeared to be facing the prospect of standing their trial unrepresented since they are unable to afford paying for lawyers.
He said it would ease the task of all involved if the accused were represented as it would speed up the proceedings in the trial if only a number of legal representatives, rather than each of 125 accused, had to question witnesses called by the State.
Van Sittert stressed that it was absolutely necessary that the 125 be legally represented – something which he further remarked would be an impossible task for him to perform alone.
“It is high treason. It is unthinkable that you would leave them undefended. The State will have to consider helping them with legal aid,” he said.
That will not be possible, the Minister of Justice, Dr Ngarikutuke Tjiriange, reiterated late yesterday afternoon, repeating the explanation he had given when the suspects first appeared in the High Court at Grootfontein on June 18: that the Legal Aid Directorate did not have enough money available to finance the legal representation of such a large group of suspects in a trial that was expected to be protracted and to take a year, or more probably longer, to complete.
The reason for the refusal of legal aid was purely financial, he maintained, saying: “We have no problem in granting the legal aid if we have the means to do so, and we simply don’t have the means.”
In terms of the Legal Aid Act of 1990 the High Court could, if it believed there was sufficient reason why an accused person had to be granted legal aid, issue a certificate which would have compelled the Legal Aid Director to provide such an accused with legal representation.
The part of the Act which gave the High Court that power was scrapped last year, though. – The Namibian
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