Marthina Mutanga
THE family of Oscar Gariseb have been advised to register a case of assault with the intent to cause grievous bodily harm after he was left with severe injuries that occurred during an arrest last week.
Gariseb was allegedly assaulted while in police custody and his family is very disappointed with the men in the uniform who are supposed to enforce health regulations during curfew hours.
Gariseb’s brother, Robert, said that the incident occurred on the evening of 13 August after they returned from visiting family in the area of Katutura known as the Wambo Location.
On their way home, they bought food at the Hakana Service Station and encountered a law enforcement patrol that was busy with people in another car at the time.
According to Robert, they were driving in his cousin’s vehicle and when they passed the police patrol and someone in the car shouted obscenities at the members of the police.
He said that they went home sat down and continued drinking in the yard.
“After a while, the very same police patrol passed by the house and again there was an exchange of words. The police turned their vehicle around and approached the house. The officers entered the yard and started manhandling the young people. At this point my brother Barney was taken by the police officers and they drove away with him,” he said.
According to Robert, officers told them to fetch their friend at the police station. The officers did not specify which polices station.
The family only saw Oscar again when he returned in the morning.
“We only found out later that he checked himself out of the hospital and went straight to his bed. When we started to call around to find out where he is and if he returned to his house, we were told that he was seriously injured,” he said.
Robert said Oscar was badly beaten all over his body with no part of him that was not bruised.
“He was disorientated and did not respond when people called his name and at this point, the family decided to take him back to the hospital,” he said.
According to Robert, the doctors determined that he had sustained severe head trauma and that he had blood on his brain. The doctors wanted to perform surgery immediately but they had to wait for his blood pressure to go down.
Oscar said his brother underwent surgery on the afternoon of 14 August and that he was released from the intensive care unit after the weekend.
When the family enquired from the hospital as to what happened with the victim the night shift nurses told them that he was just dropped off with no explanation from the police officers.
Robert explained that the police were the last people who had an interaction with Oscar.
“Before he was taken, he still had all his faculties. Now he has difficulty remembering what happened after the police took him away and we suspect that his condition can be attributed to the head injuries he sustained,” he said.
When they approached the Namibian Police, the family was advised to register a case of assault with the intent to do grievous bodily harm.
The head of the Namibian Police’s Public Relations Division, Deputy Commissioner Kauna Shikwambi said that no such case was reported.
Shikwambi pointed out that the matter can only be investigated if a case is registered.
