New lawyer on board in Avid fraud trial

THE criminal trial over the alleged embezzlement of a N$30 million investment of the Social Security Commission during the first half of 2005 is scheduled to continue in June after a new defence lawyer joined the court proceedings in the matter yesterday.

The trial was yesterday postponed to the week from 13 June to give defence lawyer Petrie Theron, who is a new arrival in the ranks of the lawyers involved in the matter, time to prepare to take over the defence of one of the accused on trial before Judge Christie Liebenberg. Theron will be representing Inez /Gâses, the former chairperson of the liquidated asset management company Avid Investment Corporation, who decided last week that she wanted to change her legal representation. /Gâses ended the mandate of her previous defence counsel, Werner Boesak, on Wednesday last week – the day after Boesak had started to cross−examine a co−accused of /Gâses, former Swapo Party Youth League leader and National Assembly member Paulus Kapia on her behalf.