Pastor’s bail hearing postponed again 0 The Congolese pastor, who is in custody on charges of human trafficking, rape and assault by threat, will wait until October 24 for his quest for bail to continue. Pedro Marcelino Moussongela, the founder of the Evangelical Mennonite Brethren Church and Mennonite Brethren Community School Namibia, appeared in the Ondangwa Magistrate’s Court on Monday, but his case was postponed to 24 October because the prosecutor Dollen Gowases was not available.
He is remanded in custody and is being held at the Oluno prison. During an earlier appearance, hundreds of people demonstrated outside the court and a petition was handed over to Gowases, demanding that Moussongela be denied bail.
Magistrate Jurina Hochobes is presiding over the matter.
The prosecutor who stood in for Gowases told the court that she is not familiar with the case and that she was only requested to stand in for Gowases who is on leave.
Hochobes postponed the matter to 24 October and set it down for three days to 26 October.
Moussongela’s detention at Oluno prison follows a request made by Gowases that Moussongela be transferred from the police cells after he was caught using a cellphone while in the holding cells.
Gowases was concerned that he may interfere with ongoing police investigations. Moussongela was rearrested on 23 June at his Omafo School in the north, following a new complainant who reported him to NamRights.
He was out on bail after a first appearance in the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court where he appeared accused of having trafficked five of his own children to England after he allegedly delegated someone to drop off three of these children, who are all under the age of 12, in London.
Another allegation was that he fathered one of these children with his own daughter. According to NamRights, the new complainant is a former learner at one of Moussongela’s schools and was allegedly trafficked to Turkey under the impression that she was going to further her education there, only to find out that she was allegedly taken for prostitution.
The victim also alleges she was sexually exploited in Namibia, fell pregnant and had an abortion.