Werner Menges
21 November 2008
A FORMER employee of ocean diamond mining company De Beers Marine Namibia is a free man again after the trial in which he was accused of stealing more than 500 diamonds from his employers ended with him being found not guilty yesterday.
After landing at Windhoek's Eros Airport on July 29 2004 following a flight from Oranjemund, Amos Chimbuelengue (39) was subjected to a search by members of the Namibian Police's Protected Resources Unit.
Nothing untoward was found in his luggage or on his person, but in a plastic bag that Chimbuelengue was also carrying with him, a bar of soap was found that appeared suspicious to the Police officer conducting the search.
It turned out that 531 unpolished diamonds were found inside the bar of soap, Magistrate Dinnah Usiku heard during Chimbuelengue's trial in the Windhoek Regional Court.
Following the discovery of the stones, Chimbuelengue was charged with theft of 531 diamonds, weighing 354 carats and valued at N$583 721.
He also faced an alternative charge of illegal possession of rough diamonds.
Chimbuelengue, who had been employed on a diamond-mining ship of De Beers Marine Namibia at the time of his arrest, pleaded not guilty when his trial started in late September last year.
During the trial, the Magistrate heard that Chimbuelengue was on a flight that landed at Eros Airport because the crew on board the diamond-mining vessel where he was working was being changed that day.
Chimbuelengue's defence was that he did not know the precious stones that were found with him from a bar of soap.
He claimed that the soap that was found in the bag he was carrying was not his.
The bag contained sweets and the bar of soap - a combination that raised the suspicions of the Police officer who searched him.
In her judgement yesterday, Magistrate Usiku noted that all that was required of Chimbuelengue was to give an explanation that should be reasonable.
His version was that the soap might have been placed in the bag by someone else, as the cramped seating arrangements on the small aircraft with which he and other employees of the company flew to Windhoek would have made that possible, the Magistrate recounted in her judgement.
According to Chimbuelengue, the aircraft was small, with the seats situated close to each other.
Magistrate Usiku said it had to be borne in mind that the burden of proof in a criminal trial was on the State, and that the standard of proof was very high.
Looking at all the circumstances of the case, she said, it was her opinion that the State did not discharge its burden to prove Chimbuelengue's guilt as required.
While the State lost the case against Chimbuelengue, it won on another level, though.
Magistrate Usiku noted that Chimbuelengue laid no claim to the diamonds found with him.
As a consequence, she declared that the diamonds would be forfeited to the State.
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