Treason trial stalls due to photo fight

RENEWED defence team objections kept the main Caprivi high treason trial stalled in the High Court in Windhoek this week.

The trial is now set to continue before Judge Elton Hoff on Monday next week. This week Monday, the prosecution’s 53rd witness in the trial, former Police officer Bruce Lee Dunn, was in the witness stand, ready to start testifying, only for the latest objection from the defence to put off his testimony until next week.The prosecution has been struggling to get the trial properly rolling again since it resumed on May 16 after a five-week recess.In the four weeks since then, the court has sat on only eight days – the latest of which was Tuesday, when proceedings did not even last half an hour before the case was again adjourned.Defence objections saw to that.On Monday, the retired former Commanding Officer of the Namibian Police’s Scene of Crime Unit, Jacques Malan, completed his testimony when defence lawyer Patrick Kauta cross-examined him.Malan’s testimony had been interrupted for close to two weeks in order to give the defence team time to first consult their clients and also their own expert before the retired Chief Inspector was to be cross-examined.Dunn succeeded Malan in the witness box.Before any of his testimony was heard, however, defence lawyer Christopher Dube relayed a complaint of the defence team to the Judge.A statement setting out the expected testimony of Dunn had not been disclosed to the defence at all, never mind at least three days before his testimony was to begin, which is the practice that had previously been agreed between the prosecution and the defence, Dube told the Judge.The reason why no statement had been disclosed, Deputy Prosecutor-General Taswald July told the Judge, was that the prosecution also did not have a witness statement of Dunn.Judge Hoff adjourned the trial to Tuesday to give the prosecution time to then take a statement from Dunn and provide this to the defence.Come Tuesday, though, the defence team was still not satisfied.Dube told the Judge that the statement that had in the meantime been disclosed to them, was “vague and embarrassing”, and in his view was an empty document.When July replied that it, like any witness statement, only set out the “bare bones” of the witness’s expected testimony, Dube responded that as far as he was concerned the statement in question was not even a skeleton.The defence was in any event still insisting on being given another three days to first consult with their clients in order to prepare for Dunn’s evidence, Dube said.Like Malan, Dunn is expected to testify about photographs that were taken of the 119 men on trial before Judge Hoff.These photos were later compiled in a photo album, which formed the basis of another photo album with pictures of the accused men.Judge Hoff has provisionally admitted that second album as evidence in the trial.It is expected that the prosecution will attempt to use the album as an aid to help their future witnesses to identify the people that they are expected to mention in their testimony.With the issue of identification a crucial point in the trial, the State has been facing recurrent difficulties so far with witnesses who either told the court that they were not able to identify any of the people – allegedly among the suspects in court – that they had mentioned in their testimony, or who went on to make clearly wrong identifications in court.The defence, in turn, has fought tooth and nail to try to deny the prosecution the use of other tools with which it might try to circumvent this apparent weakness in its case.The 119 men are facing charges of having been involved between 1992 and 2002 in an alleged conspiracy to secede the Caprivi Region from Namibia through armed means.This week Monday, the prosecution’s 53rd witness in the trial, former Police officer Bruce Lee Dunn, was in the witness stand, ready to start testifying, only for the latest objection from the defence to put off his testimony until next week.The prosecution has been struggling to get the trial properly rolling again since it resumed on May 16 after a five-week recess.In the four weeks since then, the court has sat on only eight days – the latest of which was Tuesday, when proceedings did not even last half an hour before the case was again adjourned.Defence objections saw to that.On Monday, the retired former Commanding Officer of the Namibian Police’s Scene of Crime Unit, Jacques Malan, completed his testimony when defence lawyer Patrick Kauta cross-examined him.Malan’s testimony had been interrupted for close to two weeks in order to give the defence team time to first consult their clients and also their own expert before the retired Chief Inspector was to be cross-examined.Dunn succeeded Malan in the witness box.Before any of his testimony was heard, however, defence lawyer Christopher Dube relayed a complaint of the defence team to the Judge.A statement setting out the expected testimony of Dunn had not been disclosed to the defence at all, never mind at least three days before his testimony was to begin, which is the practice that had previously been agreed between the prosecution and the defence, Dube told the Judge.The reason why no statement had been disclosed, Deputy Prosecutor-General Taswald July told the Judge, was that the prosecution also did not have a witness statement of Dunn.Judge Hoff adjourned the trial to Tuesday to give the prosecution time to then take a statement from Dunn and provide this to the defence.Come Tuesday, though, the defence team was still not satisfied.Dube told the Judge that the statement that had in the meantime been disclosed to them, was “vague and embarrassing”, and in his view was an empty document.When July replied that it, like any witness statement, only set out the “bare bones” of the witness’s expected testimony, Dube responded that as far as he was concerned the statement in question was not even a skeleton.The defence was in any event still insisting on being given another three days to first consult with their clients in order to prepare for Dunn’s evidence, Dube said.Like Malan, Dunn is expected to testify about photographs that were taken of the 119 men on trial before Judge Hoff.These photos were later compiled in a photo album, which formed the basis of another photo album with pictures of the accused men.Judge Hoff has provisionally admitted that second album as evidence in the trial.It is expected that the prosecution will attempt to use the album as an aid to help their future witnesses to identify the people that they are expected to mention in their testimony.With the issue of identification a crucial point in the trial, the State has been facing recurrent difficulties so far with witnesses who either told the court that they were not able to identify any of the people – allegedly among the suspects in court – that they had mentioned in their testimony, or who went on to make clearly wrong identifications in court.The defence, in turn, has fought tooth and nail to try to deny the prosecution the use of other tools with which it might try to circumvent this apparent weakness in its case.The 119 men are facing charges of having been involved between 1992 and 2002 in an alleged conspiracy to secede the Caprivi Region from Namibia through armed means.