WINDHOEK – The date has been set for the finalisation of the longest running trial in Namibian history – the Caprivi treason trial.
Judge Elton Hoff announced on Friday he had provisionally set down April 20 next year for the judgment.
“As you all will realise, I have to study the evidence before me as well as the arguments all of you so eloquently delivered,” the judge told the lawyers representing the remaining 65 accused from the original list of 122 suspects.
Judge Hoff already discharged 43 of the accused after the State closed its case and the defence applied for a Rule 174 discharge.
Judge Hoff did find there is enough evidence against the 65 currently in the dock, including former member of parliament Geoffrey Mwillima, for them to answer to the charges.
The accused were initially charged with 278 counts and 379 state witnesses testified on the charges including high treason, nine counts of murder and 240 counts of attempted murder.
The trial also took its toll on the accused with already 22 of them having died while awaiting trial.
The charges stem from an alleged failed attempt to secede the then Caprivi from Namibia.
Eight people died in an attack by the rebel Caprivi Liberation Army (CLA) on government installations on August 02, 1999 in Katima Mulilo.
The local police station, military base, field force base, border posts and the NBC offices were attacked and the State claims the attacks were carried out with the aim to use violence to take over the region.
All of the accused denied guilt at the start of the trial in a specially constituted High Court in Grootfontein in August 2004.
After Judge Hoff ordered the 65 accused were liable to answer to the charges against them in his Rule 174 ruling, 31 of the accused testified in their own defence while 34 opted to remain silent.
During submissions, State Advocate Taswald July told the court the State proved beyond a reasonable doubt that the remaining accused are the ones that were involved in one way or the other in the failed attempt to remove Caprivi from Namibia.
He asked the court to find all of the accused guilty.
The defence counsels all told the court that the State fabricated evidence to implicate their clients.
According to them torture was the order of the day and the accused were beaten to sign statements they knew nothing about.
They all accused the investigating team of strong-arm tactics and said the accused’s constitutional right to a fair trial was not merely compromised, but “assassinated”.
They were all in unison that their clients were subjected to inhumane treatment “because it was an alleged state of emergency”.
The accused would be in custody for more than 15 years when Judge Hoff makes his ruling next year.
By Roland Routh