2016-12-07Staff Report 2 Windhoek The prosecutor general is seeking leave to appeal against the decision of Acting High Court Judge Ronnie Bosielo to discharge Pio Marapi Teek on child abduction and rape charges. The PG’s application for leave to appeal against Teek, the former judge of appeal, comes more than six years after the state lost its criminal case against Teek. Judge Thomas Masuku heard the application for leave to appeal yesterday and indicated he will make his ruling on February 1 next year. An earlier application was removed from the roll in February last year by High Court Judge Nate Ndauendapo, apparently because of the failure of the Office of the Registrar of the High Court to serve papers on Teek. This is the state’s second application for leave to appeal the acquittal of Teek in the Windhoek High Court by South African Judge Ronnie Bosielo who was seconded to Namibia to preside over the high-profile trial. After Teek successfully applied for a Rule 174 discharge after the state closed its case during his first trial in 2005/2006, the state appealed that decision in the Supreme Court and it was granted a retrial. Teek is currently in the process of suing the government to facilitate a civil claim against the three South African judges who presided over the appeal that decided in favour of the state after he was first acquitted on charges of child abduction, rape and other charges. He was however acquitted for the second time after the completion of the trial in the High Court. He now wants the High Court to compel government to facilitate the civil suit on his behalf against Judges Piet Streicher, Kenneth Mthiyane and Fritz Brand. He claimed that they failed in their constitutional and legal duties and trampled on his fundamental rights. He said they simply relied on the prosecution’s written arguments and did not bother to read the record of his trial. Teek claims that he suffered a total loss of N$6.873 million in earnings, damages, legal fees and future earnings. He scored a victory when Supreme Court Justices of Appeal Justice Sandile Ngcobo, Lady Justice Vernanda Ziyambi and Justice Paddington Garwe ordered that Teek’s civil suit be referred back to the High Court to be considered afresh. Teek lodged an appeal with the Supreme Court after then Acting Judge Nicolaas Ndou ordered that the High Court lacked jurisdiction to hear the case. The state is however not taking it lightly and has decided to lodge an appeal against the second acquittal of Teek on the criminal charges he faced. He was accused of abducting two young girls and after plying them with alcohol showed them pornographic movies and allegedly fondled them. He denied all the charges and said he found them wandering at night unsupervised and hungry and that he merely took them to his plot to feed them. He further claimed he planned to take them to their homes after feeding them, but that he fell asleep and only took them back home when he woke up the next morning. At the time Teek claimed there was a “witch-hunt” against him with the police inflating charges and fabricating evidence against him. He was eventually acquitted on all charges and the state now wants to revive the matter with an appeal in the Supreme Court. The state claimed Judge Bosielo erred when he found that the state did not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Teek was guilty and by criticising the manner in which the police handled the investigation. 2016-12-07Staff Report 2
