WINDHOEK – The trial of former Windhoek-based public prosecutor Anthony Wilson is scheduled to start in September this year.
Wilson is expected to stand trial alongside Congolese national Kennedy Thiongo Kasume in the Windhoek Regional Court after the prosecutor general decided to prosecute the two on various charges of fraud involving scrapping of charges from the court system.
During the previous court proceedings, the court had to postpone the trial as Kasume was not available as he had been detained by the Namibian police for another case. According to state prosecutor Fillemon Nyau, arrangements were made to transport Kasume to Windhoek but he did not make it on time for the court proceedings. Kasume is currently on bail on his recent case.
Magistrate Alexis Diegaardt gave a final remand for the trial after it was postponed several times, postponing the matter finally to September 9.
Wilson and Kasume will be prosecuted on 10 charges of fraud, theft and corruption and the offence of using his office for self-gratification. All charges stem from the time Wilson was employed by the office of the prosecutor general as a public prosecutor stationed at the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court, and Kasume a suspect.
The prosecution is alleging that Wilson illegally used his position as a state prosecutor employed by the office of the prosecutor general, and having access to police criminal dockets, stole a charge sheet. Wilson then withdrew criminal charges levelled against Kasume. In pretence, Wilson wrote a letter to Magistrate Vanessa Stanley that the complainant in Kasume’s case had written a letter of withdrawal, stating that he wanted to have the charges against Kasume withdrawn. It is alleged that he did the same thing in the case of Alex Kagasheka, who had opened a case against Kasume. If that was not enough, Wilson enticed the police to release a motor vehicle that was repossessed by the police.
Using the same pretence Wilson was able to have criminal investigations of theft against Kasume discontinued by having the Namibian police discontinue the docket with reasons that it was a civil matter, and ensured that the odds were in Kasume’s favour.