Koen’s bail hearing postponed

OUTJO Town Treasurer Dawid Koen missed the first day of his bail application hearing at Otjiwarongo yesterday, following his arrest last week on an arson charge.

The municipal official, accused of burning down half of the town council building last week Monday, was instead at the Okonguarri Psychotherapeutic Centre, where he is being treated for depression.Koen was admitted to the centre outside Outjo on Friday last week.He had handed himself over to the Police four days earlier on Monday afternoon, hours after fire destroyed the municipality’s administrative block, accounts department and the CEO’s office.Witnesses at the scene claimed to have seen Koen in the area around the time the fire started at around 06h40 that morning.The Police and council colleagues searched for him in vain throughout that day, even finding his car abandoned at the Otjiwarongo airport.He handed himself over to the Police at Outjo late that afternoon.Yesterday’s scheduled bail application hearing in the Otjiwarongo Magistrate’s Court was postponed until September 16 because of Koen’s absence.Koen remains under Police guard.