National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) congratulates the Inspector General of the Namibian police (NamPol) and the Station Commander of the Ondangwa police, following the prompt arrest and subsequent indictment of three of the four torture suspects. The trio, that includes an Ondangwa NamPol sergeant, has been arraigned on charges of kidnapping and "assault to do grievous bodily harm" (GBH), as torture is also called in police parlance.

Ondangwa Nampol Sergeant Sakeus Amwele (36), Akuunda Nakanyala (30) and Andreas Nghishekwa (44) have been indicted in connection with the "savageous" assault of Hofeni Angomo Ikolola (16) on or around April 25 2006 at Oshigambo village, some 20 kilometers north of the town of Ondangwa. The fourth defendant, a certain Teeleleni Mutilitha (58), was arrested promptly after the torture incident.

The arrest of the trio came almost immediately after local NBC TV News and at least two local daily newspapers published reports containing still color pictures showing Ikolola (also spelt "Ikololo") indiscriminately criss-crossed by his captors with rotangs (i.e. Afrikaans for horse whips) all over his body. The said media reports were based on a NSHR Press Release of May 7 2006.

Ikolola was accused of housebreaking and theft, charges he has denied.

Meanwhile, the Ondangwa Magistrate Court has revealed upon enquiry that Ikolola himself faces three separate criminal cases. In two such cases (Cases A71/05 and B242/06 (or CR117/04/06)), the juvenile has been indicted with "housebreaking with intent to steal and theft", while in another case (Case B228/06 or CR 160/04/06)), Ikolola has been indicted on charge of theft. Ikololo remains in police custody at the Ondangwa police precinct.

However, NSHR has reasonable cause to suspect that either an honest mistake has been made in connection with some of the charges brought against Ikolola or he is facing two separate charges—to wit B228/06 (or CR 160/04/06) and B242/06 (or CR117/04/06)—for the same offense! However, in accordance with the doctrine of non bis in idem, Article 12 (2) strictly prohibits persons from being arrested, convicted and or any way punished twice for the same offense.

The chronological numbers of two of the three charges Ikolola is facing point to the following scenario: Ondangwa police first arrested Ikolola in accordance with CR 117/04/06 on a charge of "housebreaking with intent steal and theft" for which he had presumably appeared in court (Case B228/06) on April 24 2006. The case was postponed to July 4 2006. However, barely a day or two later on or around April 26 2006, Ikolola was allegedly tortured by three private citizens and a police sergeant. He was detained by inter alia being tied to a post for the whole night at Oshigambo village. He was later officially arrested by Ondangwa police on or around April 29 2006 in accordance with CR 160/04/06 on precisely the same charge of "housebreaking with intent to steal and theft". He had subsequently appeared before the Ondangwa Magistrate’s Court (Case B242/06) on May 3 2006 and the matter was also postponed to July 4 2006!

Barely seven days later, on May 11 2006, Ikolola again appeared before the Ondangwa Magistrate Court (Case A71/05) on a charge of theft, an offense he had presumably committed during the year 2005!