Africa-Press – Namibia. TWO former employees of diamond mining company Debmarine Namibia yesterday denied they were guilty of stealing gemstones valued at N$6,2 million on a ship of the company nearly 10 years ago.
Emmanuel Shikololo (48) and Rodney Klim (48) denied guilt on charges of theft of unpolished diamonds, alternatively possession of rough diamonds, and conspiring to steal diamonds, at the start of their trial in the Windhoek High Court.
Legal aid lawyers Meriam Kandoni, representing Shikololo, and Loretha Muvangua, who is representing Klim, both told judge Christie Liebenberg their clients are denying all the allegations made against them in the charges and are challenging the state to prove all elements of the crimes they are accused of having committed.
The state is alleging that while Shikololo and Klim were employed by De Beers Marine Namibia, now known as Debmarine Namibia, they planned during the period from September to November 2011 to steal diamonds from a mining vessel of the company, the Debmar Atlantic.
It is also alleged that Shikololo and Klim tried to involve a security officer of the company, Dawid Jarvis, in their plan. The theft was allegedly carried out on 6 November 2011, when Shikololo handed a bag containing 453 diamonds, weighing 668 carats and valued at about N$6,2 million, to Jarvis.
Jarvis testified that Shikololo first approached him during October 2010 and asked him to change to another work team, whose shifts coincided with those of the team in which Shikololo was. Shikololo also mentioned there was something he wanted to take off the marine mining vessel, Jarvis said.
He said he contacted a member of the company’s security unit and reported Shikololo’s suggestion. Around March 2011, Jarvis said, he was transferred to a new work team as suggested by Shikololo.
Jarvis recounted that in October 2011 – a date which he later corrected to September 2011 – Shikololo came to his cabin on the ship and told him he was working with a partner, who was Klim, his supervisor in the vessel’s diamond recovery plant.
On 8 September 2011 – also a date which Jarvis initially said was in October – and again three days later, Shikololo entered the vessel’s high-security ‘red area’, where diamonds were recovered from gravel sucked from the seabed, to deal with a problem which Klim had reported, Jarvis testified.
On both days, Shikololo contacted him a few hours after he had left the restricted area and arranged to meet him in a storage area of the vessel, Jarvis said.
He recounted that during both those meetings, Shikololo showed him diamonds. With the first meeting, Jarvis said, he counted 212 diamonds, and with the second he counted 67 gemstones. When he asked Shikololo where he got the diamonds, Shikololo did not give an answer, but told him not to worry about it, Jarvis added.
During October 2011, he continued, he, Shikololo and Klim travelled to Cape Town, where they met a Portuguese man who was going to buy the diamonds which were to be removed from the mining vessel.
During a meeting with the buyer, it was decided that Jarvis was going to be the courier who would bring the diamonds off the ship and through a security screening area before he would hand the gemstones back to Shikololo, Jarvis recounted.
On 6 November 2011, Shikololo arranged to meet him on the ship, Jarvis said. At the place where they met, security officers of the company had installed hidden surveillance cameras, Jarvis also told the court.
He added that when he and Shikololo met, Shikololo took out a yellow bag from his overall and handed it to him. When he checked in the bag, he saw it contained diamonds, Jarvis said.
By the time one of his security officer colleagues arrived at the meeting place, Shikololo had left, but he was later found on the ship, brought to the security control room and informed that he had been caught. Shikololo and Klim are both free on a warning from the court while the trial continues. State advocate Ian Malumane is prosecuting.
