Admitted double-accused murderer Ernst Josef Lichtenstrasser will call a forensic expert from South Africa to testify in his defence when his trial resumes at the end of July.

In the meantime, Windhoek High Court Judge Christi Liebenberg, who is presiding over the matter, postponed the matter to 11 July for a status hearing to determine the progress made with the testing of the evidence. 

Albert Titus, the Legal Aid lawyer of Lichtenstrasser informed the judge that they secured the services of South African ballistics expert, Lucas Visser from Westco Forensics, to examine and possibly contradict the expert from the Namibia Police Forensic Science Institute. 

He said this was to afford his client the best possible defence. According to Titus, the expert was already placed in funds by the family of Lichtenstrasser and has agreed to travel to Namibia to do the examination. 

He further said Nelius Becker, the chief of the NPFSI, has in principle agreed to accommodate Visser pending authorisation from the office of the prosecutor general. Deputy prosecutor general Antonia Verhoef, who is prosecuting the matter, did not oppose the application and agreed to make the process smooth. 

Lichtenstrasser is on trial for the murders of two senior executives of the Namibia Institute of Mining and Technology, Eckhardt Mueller, who was the executive director at the time, and his deputy, Heinz Heimo Hellwig who were gunned down in cold blood. It is alleged by the State that he fired several shots at them at the entrance of the Arandis NIMT offices at the Erongo mining town on 15 April 2019. He admitted the murders in a confession that was videotaped on 15 May 2019. He, however, has made a U-turn and is now denying the confession was made while he was in his sober mind and senses and claims that it was coerced.

He made the confession to the police, which was admitted as evidenced by Judge Liebenberg. 

Lichtenstrasser in his evidence in defence, however, said he “fabricated” the confession to prevent the police from arresting his wife as an accomplice to the murders. 

According to him, everything he said in the confession was what was told to him by the officers, who interrogated him “relentlessly” – and the fact that he knew the position of the bullet wounds and the manner in which the accused was shot was because he was shown photographs of the crime scene and the victims. Lichtenstrasser claimed he spent the night prior to the killings and the following night in solitude in the desert near Spitzkoppe after a rather vicious fight with his wife. 

He remains in custody.

- rrouth@nepc.com.na