THE prosecution has scored a win in the trial of former Public Service Commission member Teckla Lameck and two co-accused, with a judge ruling this week that four notices through which the Anti-Corruption Commission collected evidence for the trial were not unlawful.
In a ruling delivered on Thursday, judge Christie Liebenberg dismissed objections that defence lawyer Sisa Namandje raised against four notices through which the ACC gathered evidence during its investigation of allegations against Lameck, her business partner Kongo Mokaxwa, and Chinese citizen Yang Fan.
The judge also ruled that evidence obtained through the notices can be used by the prosecution in the trial in progress before him.
The notices were used by the ACC in June 2009 to get account records from two banks, as well as information from cellphone records and from the home affairs ministry.
A separate summons, which the ACC used to get evidence from bank records, was ruled invalid by judge Liebenberg in January, when he also ruled that evidence gathered through that summons was inadmissible in the trial.
Lameck (58), Mokaxwa (40) and Yang (48) pleaded not guilty to a total of 18 charges at the start of their trial in May last year.
The charges include a count of fraud in connection with a transaction in which the Ministry of Finance bought X-ray scanning equipment at a total cost of US$55,3 million (then about N$477 million) from a Chinese company, Nuctech, which was represented by Yang, in early 2009.
The prosecution is alleging that the price of the scanning equipment was inflated to enable Nuctech to pay a ‘commission’ of at least US$12,8 million to a close corporation of Lameck and Mokaxwa, Teko Trading CC, while Teko Trading played no role in the transaction between the ministry and the Chinese company.
In other charges faced by Lameck and Mokaxwa only, they are accused of having defrauded the Swapo-owned Namib Contract Haulage, where Mokaxwa was employed and Lameck was a company director, by inflating the price the company had to pay for lorries and buses that it imported from China in early 2007. The prosecution is alleging that by inflating the price Lameck and Mokaxwa in effect got Namib Contract Haulage to buy four lorries, each costing US$36 000, for the two of them.
The trial is scheduled to continue from 2 September.
Stay informed with The Namibian – your source for credible journalism. Get in-depth reporting and opinions for
only N$85 a month. Invest in journalism, invest in democracy –
Subscribe Now!
