OLIVEIRA MURDER SUSPECT REQUESTS LEGAL DOCUMENTS TO PREPARE DEFENCE

MBABANE -“Please provide us with the indictment and statement of witnesses so we can prepare our defence.”

This is the request by the lawyer of one of the suspects in the alleged murder of businessman Almor Oliveira. Dao Thanta’s lawyer, Leo Gama, has since written a letter to the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) demanding that he be furnished with all documents that will be used against his client. This includes statement of witnesses, indictment and summary of evidence. The lawyer mentioned that the reason he wanted these documents was for purposes of consulting with his client and further preparing defence. This reporter has it in authority that the accused had still not been indicted at the High Court. This means that their trial date remained unknown despite that they were still languishing in custody. It has been almost six months since Oliveira went missing and his whereabouts remain unknown. The businessman disappeared on April 16, 2017. Qing Ming He and Dao Thanta Hue, who are suspects in the kidnapping and murder of the businessman, are currently incarcerated.

When opposing their application, which was subsequently dismissed by the court, Senior Superintendent Clement Sihlongonyane stated that this type of kidnapping was different from other kidnappings in the country. “This is because in such kidnappings, the kidnapped person would be present to tell how he or she was kidnapped. In the present case, the person is still missing and it’s been months now and it is suspected that he is dead by now,” submitted the senior law enforcer. Meanwhile, the businessman’s wife was recently at loggerheads with the company which provided security services in their business premises. The wife, through the management, wrote a letter to the security firm where she stated that its payment would be facilitated when Oliveira returns. This stringent condition by Swaziland Scrapyards came after the director of the security company started demanding payment. She also stated that the security guards employed by Lingangane Protection Services were the reason Oliveira went missing.

In a letter directed to the security firm, Oliveira’s wife, through the management, further mentioned that if there was a designated security on duty, the disappearance and or kidnapping of the businessman would have been prevented. The security company, however, later obtained an order directing the businessman’s company to pay it. This was after the High Court issued a default judgment against the businessman’s company, Swaziland Scrapyards, trading as MTC Properties. Default judgment is a binding judgment in favour of either party based on some failure to take action by the other party. Most often, it is a judgment in favour of a plaintiff when the defendant has not responded to a summons or has failed to appear before a court of law. The failure to take action is the default. The default judgment comes after Lingangane Protection Services (PTY) Limited took Oliveira’s company to court where it was demanding payment of over E45 000.

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