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Namibia: Avid 7 Sent to High Court
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The Namibian (Windhoek)
2 May 2008
Posted to the web 2 May 2008
Werner Menges
Windhoek
THE case in which seven people - including two former MPs - have been criminally charged in connection with the disappearance of a N$30 million Social Security Commission investment in 2005 was finally transferred to the High Court on Wednesday.
A State Prosecutor first asked that the case of the seven should be transferred to the High Court, where they are set to go on trial on 10 charges, on April 18.
However, after complaints were raised by some of the defence lawyers about the indictment handed to the seven, Magistrate Elsie Schickerling postponed their case to Wednesday for another appearance in the Windhoek Magistrate's Court.
Magistrate Schickerling also ordered the State to disclose the Police docket on the case to the defence by April 30, and to provide the defence with an amended, corrected indictment, after some of the defence lawyers objected that the sequence in which the seven were charged in the High Court indictment was different from the sequence in which they appeared in the lower court.
They said it was not clear against which of the accused some of the allegations in the indictment were directed.
By Wednesday, though, the Magistrate had arrived at another view.
As soon as the seven were in the dock, she remarked that from the point when the Magistrate's Court had a decision from the Prosecutor General, who informed the court two weeks ago that the seven were to be arraigned in the High Court, the lower court no longer had jurisdiction over the case.
The jurisdiction was now the High Court's, and the case should actually have been transferred to that court on April 18 already, the Magistrate said.
Deputy Prosecutor General Danie Small was in court to represent the Prosecutor General.
Having heard the Magistrate's remarks, he added that the issues that the defence raised with the previous court appearance were in essence a request for further particulars on the charges and objections against the indictment, which should all be dealt with in the High Court as well.
Lawyer Sisa Namandje, who is representing former Member of Parliament, Deputy Minister of Works, Transport and Communication and Swapo Party Youth League Secretary Paulus Kapia, was still not satisfied, though.
He told the Magistrate that he had still not received a copy of the Prosecutor General's decision to have the case transferred to the High Court, and that he wanted the State to at least sort out some preliminary issues bothering the defence before the seven appeared in the High Court for the first time.
Small replied that the Criminal Procedure Act was clear - that the Prosecutor General's decision is provided to the court, which then informs an accused what the decision is and which has the indictment handed over to the accused.
At Small's request, the case was transferred to the High Court, where the seven have to make a first pre-trial appearance on June 19.
They are Kapia, fellow former MP Ralph Blaauw, Nico Josea, Labour Ministry official Otniel Podewiltz, former Namibia Defence Force brigadier Mathias Shiweda, Inez /Gâses, and lawyer Sharon Blaauw.
Kapia, Podewiltz, /Gâses and Mrs Blaauw were all at some stage directors of Avid Investment Corporation, a registered asset management company that received N$30 million from the Social Security Commission in late January 2005 under an agreement that the company would invest the money for the SSC for a four-month period.
Ralph Blaauw associated himself with the company, it is claimed, while Shiweda was at one stage also listed as a director of Avid and as a shareholder of the company.
After Avid received the money from the SSC, it transferred N$29,5 million of these funds to an account of another asset management company, Namangol Investments, which was owned and run by Josea.
Josea allegedly transferred some N$1,9 million of this money into his personal bank account, and transferred another N$20 million to an account of a supposed investment broker, Alan Rosenberg, in South Africa.
Rosenberg paid back close to N$15 million to Josea in mid-March 2005, and Josea then went on to spend this money as if it was his own, instead of returning it to Avid, it is charged in the indictment that has been served on the seven.
By the time that Avid was supposed to pay back the N$30 million plus interest earned to the SSC, it had no money to return.
This prompted the SSC to have Avid liquidated in terms of a High Court order in July 2005.
The charges against the seven consist of one count of fraud, alternatively theft, a charge of corruption, another of giving false evidence at a court enquiry under the Companies Act, and seven charges in terms of the Companies Act, including a count of recklessly or fraudulently conducting the business of Avid and Namangol Investments.
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All seven charged people remain free on bail.
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