Criminal delays mar case

ALMOST five years and 24 court appearances after their arrest, two men accused of robbing and murdering an elderly goldsmith at Okahandja were sent back yesterday to where their case started back in October 2002.

After almost two dozen postponements of their case over the course of close to five years, during which they have remained in custody, murder and robbery suspects Josef Gavin Gariseb and Deon Garoeb have been sent back to the Okahandja Magistrate’s Court – their first port of call on a long and still continuing journey through the Namibian court system. Over the past close to five years Gariseb and Garoeb have gained first-hand experience of the repeating pattern of postponements and delays and the snail’s pace of operations that have come to characterise a substantial part of Namibia’s criminal justice system in recent years.Yesterday they made their 12th appearance in the Windhoek Regional Court and their 24th court appearance since their arrest in mid-October 2002 – and still no final starting date for their trial has been fixed.Gariseb and Garoeb, who were at that stage both aged 19, were arrested in mid-October 2002 on a charge that they had murdered and robbed a 79-year-old jeweller, Franz Wojatschek, in his house at Okahandja on September 15 2002.Wojatschek was allegedly beaten to death with a wheel spanner and a metal bar.It is further alleged that he was robbed of cash of N$360, and that Gariseb and Garoeb had also stolen a .22 pistol, a video recorder, clothing and jewellery from Wojatschek’s home.Both suspects have remained in custody in the four years and nine months since their arrest.In this time, their case was postponed 12 times in the Okahandja Magistrate’s Court before they made a first appearance in the Windhoek Regional Court, where the matter had been transferred for their trial to take place, in early June 2004.Since then, though, the case was postponed another 11 times without their trial getting under way.Most of these postponements in the Regional Court were caused by a drawn-out wait for defence lawyers to be instructed by the Directorate of Legal Aid to represent the two men.With their 24th court appearance yesterday, Public Prosecutor Karin Esterhuizen informed Magistrate Gert Retief that the charges against the two men were being withdrawn.They were however recharged and are due to appear in the Okahandja Magistrate’s Court once more today – this time for their case to be transferred to the High Court, where their trial will now be scheduled to take place.It is understood that the charges were withdrawn and the two men charged afresh because it would not have been possible for the Regional Court to transfer their case directly to the High Court, whose sentencing powers are not restricted in the same way that a Regional Court’s are.In the Regional Court, their trial had at one stage been scheduled to begin in April last year.With the prosecution’s witnesses present at court and ready to testify, the matter was only postponed again, until two defence lawyers who had been instructed to represent the two accused men finally came on record in the case in April this year.Gariseb and Garoeb pleaded not guilty to the charges in the Okahandja Magistrate’s Court in January 2003.They are still in custody.According to the record of their case they were both living in Windhoek at the time of their arrest.Over the past close to five years Gariseb and Garoeb have gained first-hand experience of the repeating pattern of postponements and delays and the snail’s pace of operations that have come to characterise a substantial part of Namibia’s criminal justice system in recent years.Yesterday they made their 12th appearance in the Windhoek Regional Court and their 24th court appearance since their arrest in mid-October 2002 – and still no final starting date for their trial has been fixed. Gariseb and Garoeb, who were at that stage both aged 19, were arrested in mid-October 2002 on a charge that they had murdered and robbed a 79-year-old jeweller, Franz Wojatschek, in his house at Okahandja on September 15 2002.Wojatschek was allegedly beaten to death with a wheel spanner and a metal bar.It is further alleged that he was robbed of cash of N$360, and that Gariseb and Garoeb had also stolen a .22 pistol, a video recorder, clothing and jewellery from Wojatschek’s home.Both suspects have remained in custody in the four years and nine months since their arrest.In this time, their case was postponed 12 times in the Okahandja Magistrate’s Court before they made a first appearance in the Windhoek Regional Court, where the matter had been transferred for their trial to take place, in early June 2004.Since then, though, the case was postponed another 11 times without their trial getting under way.Most of these postponements in the Regional Court were caused by a drawn-out wait for defence lawyers to be instructed by the Directorate of Legal Aid to represent the two men.With their 24th court appearance yesterday, Public Prosecutor Karin Esterhuizen informed Magistrate Gert Retief that the charges against the two men were being withdrawn.They were however recharged and are due to appear in the Okahandja Magistrate’s Court once more today – this time for their case to be transferred to the High Court, where their trial will now be scheduled to take place.It is understood that the charges were withdrawn and the two men charged afresh because it would not have been possible for the Regional Court to transfer their case directly to the High Court, whose sentencing powers are not restricted in the same way that a Regional Court’s are.In the Regional Court, their trial had at one stage been scheduled to begin in April last year.With the prosecution’s witnesses present at court and ready to testify, the matter was only postponed again, until two defence lawyers who had been instructed to represent the two accused men finally came on record in the case in April this year.Gariseb and Garoeb pleaded not guilty to the charges in the Okahandja Magistrate’s Court in January 2003.They are still in custody.According to the record of their case they were both living in Windhoek at the time of their arrest.