A sensational trial that threatened to lay bare secret dealings between Namibia’s ruling party and the Chinese Communist Party’s former leadership is in danger of getting lost in Namibia’s prosecutor-general’s in-tray. Namibians Teckla Lameck and Jerobeam Mokaxwa, as well as Chinese national Yang Fan — business partners in the Teko Trading company — are being tried in the high court for allegedly defrauding the finance ministry of 120m Namibian dollars in 2009. Lameck is Namibia’s former public service commissioner. The accused lodged an appeal in the supreme court after a lower court dismissed their application to have acting high court judge Maphios Cheda removed from the case. Lameck, Mokaxwa and Yang were unhappy with a ruling that Cheda delivered in their trial in June. They have demanded that he recuse himself and asked all the proceedings that have taken place so far to be cast aside. Some say the supreme court’s ruling — expected this month — will be a "political" decision, ...

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