After nearly seven months in jail, Namibia Economic Freedom Fighters member Michael Amushelelo heard yesterday that he and a fellow activist, Dimbulukeni Nauyoma, have been found not guilty on the three charges on which they were prosecuted.
Supporters of the two men who had filled the public gallery of the courtroom in which magistrate Linus Samunzala presided over the trial of Nauyoma and Amushelelo noisily cheered and applauded after the magistrate discharged the two men on all three counts that they were facing yesterday afternoon.
Samunzala concluded that on the state’s evidence that he heard during the trial no reasonable court could find Nauyoma and Amushelelo guilty on any of the three charges.
They were charged with counts of public violence, malicious damage to property and incitement of public violence after they organised a public demonstration about unemployment in Namibia on 21 March this year.
Nauyoma, Amushelelo and Popular Democratic Movement member of parliament Inna Hengari were arrested after the police prohibited the planned demonstration from going ahead on Namibia’s Independence Day public holiday.
Charges against Hengari were withdrawn on 25 August, before Nauyoma and Amushelelo denied guilt on all three charges at the start of their trial.
Samunzala noted in his ruling yesterday there was no dispute that the state’s evidence showed Nauyoma and Amushelelo were already in police custody when a police car was damaged after protesters had left the Katutura Youth Complex where they had gathered on the morning of 21 March.
According to police officers who testified during the trial, the protesters were ordered to disperse from their gathering place, and then moved in a group along streets through Katutura before the police arrested Amushelelo and Nauyoma.
A police car was was damaged, apparently by stones thrown from the group of protesters, after the two men had been taken into custody.
Samunzala said Amushelelo and Nauyoma did not give instructions to the group to act violently, as they were already in custody before the police car was damaged.
The evidence before him also showed that Nauyoma and Amushelelo complied with a senior police officer’s instruction that the group should disperse from its gathering point at the Katutura Youth Complex, Samunzala noted.
By the time the police vehicle was damaged, Nauyoma and Amushelelo had not only been taken into police custody, but were no longer at the scene where the damage was caused, the magistrate also remarked.
Amushelelo was held in custody since his arrest. An application by him to be granted bail was dismissed by a magistrate a month after his arrest, and an appeal against that ruling was dismissed by two judges of the High Court in August.
Nauyoma was granted bail in an amount of N$5 000 after he had been held in custody for about two weeks.
His bail deposit should now be returned to the person who made the deposit, the magistrate ordered after informing Nauyoma and Amushelelo that they were found not guilty on all three charges.
Defence lawyers Sherrow Malumbano and Kadhila Amoomo represented Nauyoma and Amushelelo, respectively, during the trial yesterday and on Wednesday this week, and applied for their clients’ discharge after public prosecutor Tatelo Lusepani closed the state’s case.
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