THE trial of four businessmen being prosecuted over an alleged assault on a journalist in Windhoek early last year will only continue in January 2012.
After two days of testimony in the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court, the trial was postponed on Friday to January 11 next year.
Businessmen David Imbili, Desmond Amunyela, Kiriata Kamanya and Agab Zedekias //Gowaseb pleaded not guilty to a charge of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm at the start of their trial before Magistrate Duard Kesslau on Thursday.
They are accused of assaulting journalist John Grobler at a Windhoek bar, Pharaoh’s Lounge, on January 9 2010.
Grobler told the court on Thursday that he was assaulted when //Gowaseb threw a drink in his face and Kamanya then hit him on the side of his face with a whisky glass, leaving him with a cut in front of his left ear.
Grobler also testified that Imbili had passed the glass to Kamanya before Kamanya hit him with it.
Amunyela was with the other three men, and had on a past occasion threatened him that he would “f*** me up”, Grobler further claimed.
He said in an effort to get away from the attack he finally fell backwards over a hedge of shrubs outside the bar, and landed on the pavement.
Grobler was lying and fabricated the whole incident, the men’s defence lawyer, Sisa Namandje, charged during his cross-examination.
The injuries that Grobler sustained – the cut, and scratches on his forehead, nose and the right side of his face – were self-inflicted, being the result of Grobler falling to the ground while he was trying to attack Amunyela, Imbili and Kamanya, and finally the result of Grobler jumping through the hedge “like a kudu”, Namandje claimed.
He said //Gowaseb in fact only arrived at the bar after the incident had taken place.
Grobler denied all of this.
“Mister Namandje, the injuries to my face were caused by your clients, not by the plants,” he told Namandje.
A doctor who treated Grobler’s injuries after the incident, Dr Umoyo Zimba, appeared to be perplexed when the suspects’ version that Grobler had been injured by the plants and falls to the ground was put to her.
She said she did not know if someone could get such injuries from flying through a hedge of plants. It would also be very strange to have acquired the kind of scratches that Grobler had on his forehead through a fall on the ground, she said.
Dr Zimba also added: “Anything is possible. It’s just about whether it’s probable or not.”
In his cross-examination, Namandje launched a stinging attack on Grobler’s credibility.
Namandje took aim at alleged contradictions between Grobler’s testimony in court and his previous versions in two statements he had made to the Police and entries he had made on Facebook. He then accused Grobler of being a liar, being reckless, relying on rumours, and of having fabricated his version of events in an effort to secure a conviction against the four accused men.
He also accused Grobler of having been drunk, violent and insulting at the bar, of having thrown a drink at the four suspects and of having called them corrupt businessmen and “Swapo’s running dogs”.
Grobler denied all of this, too. If anyone is not credible, it is Namandje’s clients, he said. He further denied an accusation that he is harbouring a hatred for Swapo and against moneyed black businessmen.
He has some good friends who are Swapo members, Grobler said. He also told the court that it is not the colour of a businessman’s skin that counts for him, but rather the way the person does business.
The four charged men remain free on a warning from the court until the trial continues.
Public Prosecutor Phineas Nsundano is representing the State.