Judge arrested for sex crime
2005-02-01 11:41
Windhoek - A Namibian Supreme Court judge has been arrested on charges of kidnapping two young girls from a township bus stop and sexually assaulting them, police and state media said late on Monday.
Judge Pio Teek was arrested around noon on Monday in the capital in connection with the case involving a nine- and 10-year-old girl, said police spokesperson Hieronymus Goraseb.
"He (Teek) is in police custody for questioning and investigations," Goraseb said. "Should he be charged, it will happen within 48 hours after his arrest," he said.
State-owned Namibian Broadcasting Corporation said the mother of one of the girls had come forward after charges of kidnapping and indecent assault were laid by one of the girls' mothers, following their kidnapping from a bus stop at Katutura township, northwest of Windhoek.
Government newspaper New Era reported the girls were allegedly taken to a small farm about 35km north of the capital, where they were sexually assaulted, before being dropped off back in the township the next day.
Teek was appointed in 1999 the first black judge president of the High Court, Namibia's second highest tribunal after the Supreme Court, a post he held till June 2003.
He was then promoted to judge of appeal to the Supreme Court. - AFP
- SAPA