WINDHOEK – Garth Joseph, the defence lawyer representing the 28-year-old Jackson Panduleni, who is accused of shooting to death a member of the Women and Men Network Against Crime volunteer group last year at a kasi party (an informal street party), is asking the court to discharge his client.
Joseph told the court he would bring an application for Panduleni to be discharged because he acted in self-defence.
Panduleni is accused of murdering Tobias Abisai, 33, at the informal street party held in Okuryangava location in Katutura on 9 February last year.
The trial is before Magistrate Sarel Jacobs in the Regional Court in Katutura and is set to continue on 12 September.
Last year Panduleni pleaded not guilty to the charge of murder. He is free on bail. He informed the court that he fired the fatal shot in self-defence, after he was attacked from behind by an unknown person.
Panduleni said he was in the company of friends and relatives, with whom he had driven to the party.
Last year he further informed the court that he left the party to go to his car, when an unidentified man pulled him on his shirt from behind and hit him on his head.
The suspect said he still had his gun in his hand and had attempted to “aim at the sky”, but as he fell to the ground, the shot struck the unknown man, later identified as Abisai.