Photo fight to the finish in treason trial

THE main Caprivi high treason trial may be on the verge of moving back to square one, with the prosecution’s very first witness in the trial set to make a return to the stand if the prosecution has its way.

A contest between the prosecution and the defence that has been going on since the trial resumed last week after a five-week recess continued in the High Court in Windhoek yesterday with the latest in a series of objections being raised by defence counsel Patrick Kauta against the procedure that the prosecution is trying to follow in the trial. Judge Elton Hoff is set to give his ruling this morning on Kauta’s latest objection and on a preceding request from Deputy Prosecutor General Taswald July that the court should recall the Namibian Police’s Warrant Officer Daniel Mouton to the witness box.Kauta yesterday objected to July’s request that Mouton, who was the first witness to testify for the State after the trial started in the High Court at Grootfontein in August 2004, should be recalled to the stand to give further evidence.July asked Judge Hoff to recall Mouton after the Judge on Monday dismissed an application from Kauta in which the defence lawyer had asked the court to rule that an irregularity had occurred in the trial when Judge Hoff decided last week to provisionally admit a photo album containing pictures of the 119 accused persons as evidence in the trial.The photo album consists of a collection of photographs that were taken of previous photographs that had been collected in two separate previous photo albums.Two photos of each of the accused persons before court, with the photos taken a couple of years apart, appear in the new album.In this album, the accused persons appear in a random sequence and without their names reflected with their photos.July told the court last week that the prosecution’s purpose with the new album is to use it as a tool in court in an attempt to address recurring problems that it has experienced with witnesses who have been unable to identify people in the dock that they had testified about.Changes in the physical appearance of the accused men over the seven to eight years that have passed since the high treason case started may now make it difficult for witnesses to identify the people they are testifying about, July remarked.He noted that the defence had itself also stated previously that the issue of identity would be crucial in the trial.Judge Hoff dismissed Kauta’s last attempt to block the admission of the photo album as evidence with a comment that this was a premature attack by the defence lawyer.In his view, the provisional admission of the photo album did not constitute an irregularity, the Judge said, adding that the question whether an irregularity would arise in future would depend on the circumstances in which the album is used.However, with the court not having been told who took the original photographs that were later turned into the photos in the album, which as a result is now considered to be secondary evidence, July asked for Mouton to be recalled, since he took some of the original pictures.Mouton is attached to the Police’s Scene of Crime Unit.He spent five days in the witness box in the High Court at Grootfontein in late August and early September 2004, giving evidence about collections of other photographs that were taken in the Caprivi Region of scenes connected to an alleged attempt to secede the Caprivi Region from Namibia through armed means some seven to eight years ago.Judge Elton Hoff is set to give his ruling this morning on Kauta’s latest objection and on a preceding request from Deputy Prosecutor General Taswald July that the court should recall the Namibian Police’s Warrant Officer Daniel Mouton to the witness box.Kauta yesterday objected to July’s request that Mouton, who was the first witness to testify for the State after the trial started in the High Court at Grootfontein in August 2004, should be recalled to the stand to give further evidence.July asked Judge Hoff to recall Mouton after the Judge on Monday dismissed an application from Kauta in which the defence lawyer had asked the court to rule that an irregularity had occurred in the trial when Judge Hoff decided last week to provisionally admit a photo album containing pictures of the 119 accused persons as evidence in the trial.The photo album consists of a collection of photographs that were taken of previous photographs that had been collected in two separate previous photo albums.Two photos of each of the accused persons before court, with the photos taken a couple of years apart, appear in the new album.In this album, the accused persons appear in a random sequence and without their names reflected with their photos.July told the court last week that the prosecution’s purpose with the new album is to use it as a tool in court in an attempt to address recurring problems that it has experienced with witnesses who have been unable to identify people in the dock that they had testified about.Changes in the physical appearance of the accused men over the seven to eight years that have passed since the high treason case started may now make it difficult for witnesses to identify the people they are testifying about, July remarked.He noted that the defence had itself also stated previously that the issue of identity would be crucial in the trial.Judge Hoff dismissed Kauta’s last attempt to block the admission of the photo album as evidence with a comment that this was a premature attack by the defence lawyer.In his view, the provisional admission of the photo album did not constitute an irregularity, the Judge said, adding that the question whether an irregularity would arise in future would depend on the circumstances in which the album is used.However, with the court not having been told who took the original photographs that were later turned into the photos in the album, which as a result is now considered to be secondary evidence, July asked for Mouton to be recalled, since he took some of the original pictures.Mouton is attached to the Police’s Scene of Crime Unit.He spent five days in the witness box in the High Court at Grootfontein in late August and early September 2004, giving evidence about collections of other photographs that were taken in the Caprivi Region of scenes connected to an alleged attempt to secede the Caprivi Region from Namibia through armed means some seven to eight years ago.