Arandis – shooter applies for bail

State represented by same advocate who put Thomas Florin behind bars for life

Sharlien Tjambari and Floris Steenkamp

The alleged Arandis-shooter, Ernst Lichtenstrasser (58), is applying for bail. Lichtenstrasser faces two murder counts after the Director of the Namibia Institute of Mining and Technology (NiMT), Mr Eckhart Mueller (72), and his Deputy, Heimo Hellwig (60), were gunned down in cold blood as they arrived for work at the Institute at Arandis early on the morning of 15 April this year.
Representing the State in Lichtenstrasser’s bail application is Advocate Antonia Verhoef, who is also Namibia’s Deputy Prosecutor-General. Advocate Verhoef counts among the best State legal practitioners in the country. She represented the State in the late nineties in the prosecution of Thomas Florin who killed and dismembered his wife at their residence in the then Brückenstrasse of Swakopmund.
The State opposes bail to Lichtenstrasser. “If allowed bail, the accused might temper with evidence and police investigations and giving bail might not be in the interest of the public”, Verhoef argued before magistrate Conchita Olivier. Lichtenstrasser is represented by legal practitioner Trevor Brockerhoff.
The bail hearing is set to continue today.

Members of the Arandis community, led by the Mayor of the Town Clr Risto Kapenda, staged a peaceful demonstration in front of the Swakopmund magistrate’s court yesterday, demanding the State don’t grant bail to the alleged NiMT-shooter, Ernst Lichtenstrasser. A petition was handed to Advocate Antonia Verhoef by Clr Kapenda in this regard (pictured left).
Advocate Verhoef, who is also Namibia’s Deputy Prosecutor-General at the outset of the bail application hearing informed court that bail will be opposed.
Lichtenstrasser is accused of shooting dead NiMT Director Eckhart Mueller and his Deputy, Heimo Hellwig, in cold blood on the morning of 15 April this year. The killings took place as Mueller and Hellwig arrived for work at the NiMT headquarters at Arandis.