Eight men appeared in the Windhoek Magistrates' Court on 3 June: Andreas HEITA, Salom PAULUS (20), (Andreas) Gideon TONGENI (24), Matheus GABRIEL (20), Martin AKWEENDA (23), Johannes NANGOLO, Petrus Kakede NANGOMBE (37) and Sakarius Balakius NAMWANDI. No charges were led and the men were remanded in custody until 13 June when the indictment was due to be served. Few details of the accused have been published – Nangolo and Akweenda, both builders, were detained in September 1985 (FOCUS 61 p.9) and Gabriel, Tongeni, Namwandi and Nangombe the following month. (FOCUS 62 p.3) At first police denied that Namwandi and his sister, Velemina, were being held. Nangombe is a schoolteacher. No details of the detention of Heita or Paulus appeared in the press.
The first four defendants appeared in court in Tsumeb in February. Their next appearance was due on 2 June but was transferred to Windhoek when the four other men also appeared. In April it was reported that one of the first four accused was receiving treatment at a military hospital in Pretoria. At that time at least thirteen people were being held as potential witnesses in the trial – 12 of them at Mururani police cells, at the checkpoint between Grootfontein district and the Kavango bantustan, and one in Oshakati.
The men's defence lawyer declined to comment on the likely charges against the men in the face of press reports speculating that the men could face over one hundred counts of 'terrorism'. Martin AKWEENDA was the subject of a Supreme Court ruling in February (see FOCUS 64 p.10). It seems that although he was released from detention under Proclamation AG9, on the order of the court, he was immediately made subject to Section 12a of the Internal Security Act (1950) which allows the refusal of bail to certain awaiting-trial prisoners. In an affidavit to the Supreme Court the head of the security branch in Namibia alleged that Akweenda was a member of a cell 'actively involved in deeds of terrorism'. (WA 28.1.86, 3.6.86; WO 26.4.86; Nam 6.6.86; NCC June 86)
