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Home / State dealt a blow in Teek acquittal appeal
State dealt a blow in Teek acquittal appeal
2015-02-24Staff Report 2 WINDHOEK - The apparent failure of the Office of the Registrar of the High Court to serve papers on former Appeal Judge Pio Marapi Teek left Judge Nate Ndauendapo with no other option but to remove the matter from the court roll yesterday. Judge Ndauendapo had to stand in for Acting Judge Maphios Cheda, who was to preside over the State’s application for leave to appeal the acquittal of Teek for a second time in the Windhoek High Court by South African Judge Ronnie Bosielo. Judge Cheda was at the time in Oshakati presiding over other matters, unaware that he is expected in Windhoek. Teek successfully applied for a discharge after the State closed its case during his first trial in 2005/2006, the State appealed that decision in the Supreme Court and was granted a retrial. Teek is currently in the process of suing government to facilitate a civil claim against the three South African judges, who presided over the appeal that decided in favour of the State when 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 wants the 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. Teek said that they simply relied on the prosecution’s written arguments and did not bother to read the record of his trial. He 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 Acting Judge Nicolaas Ndou ordered that the High Court lack 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 that he found them wandering at night unsupervised and hungry and that he merely took them to his plot to feed them. He further claimed that he planned to take them to their homes after feeding them, but that he fell asleep and only took them home when he woke up the next morning. At that stage, Teek claimed that a “witch hunt” was being committed against him with the police inflating the 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 claims that 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. 2015-02-24Staff Report 2
