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 b0red5tiff
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Registered: 09/16/06
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 Drug unit member denies murdering dagga suspect [NAMIBIA]
#8396298 - 05/13/08 11:20 AM (4 months, 23 days ago) |
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A NAMIBIAN Police Drug Law Enforcement Unit member who is accused of murdering a suspected cannabis merchant at Katima Mulilo in August 2005 pleaded not guilty to all three charges that he is facing when his trial started in the High Court in Windhoek yesterday.
Drug Law Enforcement Unit member Dominic Mwilima (45) pleaded not guilty to a charge of murder and two counts of defeating or obstructing the course of justice.
It is alleged that on August 14 2005 Mwilima killed a 22-year-old Zambian national, Wengar Mutafela, outside the OK Food supermarket at Katima Mulilo by shooting him in the chest with a 9 mm pistol.
After the shooting, it is further alleged, Mwilima defeated or obstructed the course of justice by picking up the spent cartridge ejected from the Police pistol with which Mutafela was allegedly shot and removing the cartridge casing from the scene, and also by telling other Police officers that the shooting had been carried out by someone else.
The Police subsequently arrested another person at Katima Mulilo as a suspect in the killing of Mutafela, before an alleged eyewitness to the incident told the Police that he had actually seen Mwilima shooting dead the young man.
Former Police Warrant Officer Progress Sipapela was the first witness to testify for the prosecution in Mwilima's trial before Acting Judge John Manyarara yesterday.
He said he was reading a newspaper while sitting in his car outside the OK Foods store at Katima Mulilo on August 14 2005 when he saw Mwilima chasing someone past the right hand side of his vehicle.
About five metres in front of the vehicle, the person that Mwilima was chasing, stopped and turned around to face Mwilima, Sipapela said.
He then saw Mwilima pulling out a firearm from his waist with his left hand, Sipapela said.
The next thing he witnessed was the fatal shooting, Sipapela related: "He put it in his right hand and shot the deceased.
I saw the deceased, my Lord, going down slowly, falling down."
He said he jumped out of his vehicle and went closer, while seeing Mwilima picking up something from the ground and putting it into one of his trouser pockets.
When the Police arrived at the scene, he heard Mwilima telling them that the person who had shot Mutafela had run off to the back of the shop.
After the Police had rushed off from the scene in an attempt to catch the fleeing supposed killer, he drove to the Police station to report that he had seen Mwilima fire the fatal shot, Sipapela testified.
He later identified Mwilima at an identification parade as the person who had shot Mutafela.
Mwilima's defence lawyer, Christie Mostert, told Sipapela during his cross-examination that Mwilima's version of the event is that when he arrived at the shop on the day in question, he found Mutafela and two other men selling drugs.
When he took out his Police appointment certificate, the two other men pulled out knives, and when he then took out his pistol, Mutafela grabbed the gun and a shot went off, Mostert put Mwilima's instructions to Sipapela.
Mostert added that according to Mwilima, he does not know if the shot was fired from his pistol or from another firearm, and that if the shot was fired from his pistol, it had gone off by accident.
On hearing Mwilima's instructions to his lawyer, Sipapela repeated that he had seen Mwilima chasing Mutafela past his vehicle, Mutafela coming to a standstill and turning around, and Mwilima then taking out a pistol and firing a shot at Mutafela.
According to the autopsy report, Mutafela's had died as a result of a gunshot wound to the chest.
Mutafela was found to have 15 small paper pouches of dagga with him, the court was told further.
State advocate Sandra Miller also called Commissioner Tylves Kampolo, the Regional Commander of the Namibian Police in the Caprivi Region, to the witness stand yesterday.
Kampolo testified that after hearing a claim that a Police officer had been responsible for the shooting of Mutafela, and that it had been a member of the Drug Law Enforcement unit, he called Mwilima to his office during the afternoon of August 14 2005.
He inspected Mwilima's Police pistol, and asked Mwilima to put his finger into the mouth of its barrel.
When Mwilima removed his finger again, he could see some black powder on Mwilima's finger, Kampolo said.
To him this was an indication that the pistol had been fired shortly before, Kampolo told the court.
The trial is scheduled to continue today.
Mwilima is free on bail.
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