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Refugee accused of smuggling immigrants into Namibia

Home National Refugee accused of smuggling immigrants into Namibia

WINDHOEK – The case of a 48-year-old Congolese woman, Abigail Musasa Bashala, who is accused of smuggling fellow Congolese into Namibia, has been postponed to November 26.

Bashala appeared in the Otjiwarongo Magistrate’s Court last Thursday.  From rags to riches is the usual tale but for this former wife of a minister of mines and energy in the government of the then Zaire under Mobutu Seseseko, it seems the other way around. 

Going through some ups and downs, which include losing three of her children who were brutally executed in front of her, she eventually ended up in Namibia as a refugee. 

Lately she has been working for the Ministry of Justice as translator, ironically in the very magistrate’s court of Otjiwarongo where she now stands as an accused. While in the employment of the Ministry of Justice, she allegedly fell foul of her host country’s laws when she was arrested in 2013 for allegedly smuggling into Namibia fellow Congolese nationals. 

With the case for which she was arrested in 2013 pending, and for which she has to appear before the court on November 29, she was again arrested for the same offence under the Prevention of Organised Crime Act of 2009 (POCA) of 2009 with five contraventions under the said Act. 

Regarding the latest case, dated July 13 of this year, she was due to appear before the court in Otjiwarongo last Friday but collapsed due to ill-health.  

She was arrested at Wenela border post where she allegedly had infiltrated migrants from the DRC through an ungazetted entry point. 
The suspect is reportedly masterful in French as well as various Congolese local languages.