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WINDHOEK-based defense lawyer, Zagrys Grobler, was appointed to represent Martinus Pretorius, a South African national (SA) charged with 19 cases of trafficking and rape in Namibia in 2012. [19659002GroblermetPretoriusforthefirsttimeonFridaywhentheaccusedmadeanotherappearancebeforetheHighCourtdeputyjudgePresidingJudgeHoseaAngulaataconferencepreparatorytotherevisionofbusinessmanagement
The case was subsequently postponed to October 22 this year for the start of the trial, pursuant to an agreement between Grobler and the State Lawyer Felistas Shikerete-Vendura. Pretorius was found without legal representation on June 29, 2018 following the withdrawal of his first government-sponsored defense attorney, Mese Tjituri, from the case. [19659003] Initially, the legal aid service wanted the lawyer Jan Wessels to represent the accused, but the lawyer is fully booked in other courts on the dates set for the Pretorius case.
Tjituri cited the inability to reach a common understanding on several issues The trial of Pretorius, which Judge Angula, Deputy Judge of the Supreme Court, pronounced against his client, did not give him either instructions on how to proceed in his defense. Former 47-year-old Pretorius, a former police officer of the SA, also faces other charges arising from the coercive circumstances in which allegations of rape and human trafficking have been made. .
These include threats of assault, common assault and property offenses.
He allegedly raped three underage girls aged 13 to 14 in Swakopmund in the Erongo area in 2012, before fleeing the country in September of the same year.
Pretorius was arrested at SA in April 2016, after which the extradition process began and ended in December 2017, when he was finally brought back to Namibia to face the accusations. He was employed at the Rössing uranium mine near Arandis when the alleged crimes took place.
His co-accused, Namibian Johanna Lukas, who allegedly provided the minors to Pretorius four times between April and May 2012, was sentenced to 13 years in prison. imprisonment for trafficking in human beings and rape.
Judgment was rendered by President Petrus Damaseb in August 2015.
Pretorius allegedly paid Lukas $ 10,000.
He remains in custody at the Central Correctional Center in Windhoek without the possibility of bail until the trial begins.
-Nampa
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