THE car crash curse that has been be-devilling the Caprivi high treason case struck again in northern Namibia last week.
A road accident left the Commanding Officer of the Namibian Police’s High Treason Investigation Unit severely injured with a broken neck.The vehicle in which Deputy Commissioner Abraham Maasdorp was travelling overturned on the road between Okatope and Ondangwa on Wednesday last week, a Police spokesperson, Chief Inspector Angula Amulungu, confirmed yesterday.The accident is the third serious road accident involving key people in the high treason case since 2005.Maasdorp was transferred to Windhoek on Friday, where he has undergone an operation on his neck, Amulungu said.He was travelling with one of the members of his team of investigators in the treason case, Warrant Officer Kavenauue Kombungu, when the accident happened. Kombungu was not seriously injured.Other sources reported yesterday that Maasdorp suffered fractures of his neck, pelvis and a rib, as well as other injuries. Although his neck was severely injured, he did not sustain paralysing injuries to his spinal column. He is being treated in the intensive care unit of Windhoek Medi-Clinic hospital.The two Police officers were travelling to the north of the country to look for Police records that are needed in the main Caprivi high treason trial in the High Court in Windhoek.These are log books, trip authorisations and petrol records that could indicate the movements of officers involved in the high treason case at the time that some of the 117 high treason suspects still on trial before Judge Elton Hoff allegedly made self-incriminating statements before a Magistrate at Grootfontein in May 2000.PREVIOUS ACCIDENTSOn January 20 2005, a Police vehicle in which two Police officers and three State witnesses in the trial were travelling from Windhoek to Grootfontein overturned on the road between Okahandja and Otjiwarongo. One of the witnesses, Samuel Mafwafwa, who would have been the prosecution’s fourth witness in the trial before Judge Hoff, was killed in that accident. The prosecution’s third witness in the trial, whose identity is being protected in terms of a court order, and a member of the high treason investigation team, Sergeant Eimo Popyeinawa, were seriously injured.In a second fatal road accident to hit the trial, a car in which the prosecution team in the trial was travelling from Windhoek to Grootfontein was involved in a head-on collision on the road between Otjiwarongo and Otavi on March 28 2005. One of the members of the prosecution team, State advocate Corelie Barnard, was killed in that crash, while her two colleagues, Prosecutors General Herman January and Taswald July, suffered serious injuries that left them in hospital for months afterwards.That accident caused a seven-month postponement of the trial until November 2005.Maasdorp is still supposed to continue giving evidence in a trial-within-a-trial before Judge Hoff on the admissibility of statements made by some of the accused.With him not being available to continue giving evidence, the trial was yesterday postponed to September 14.
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!