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30-year jail term for hose-pipe fratricide

30-year jail term for hose-pipe fratricide

A CLAIMED attempt to discipline a wayward younger brother left a resident of village in the Omusati Region with a 30-year prison term for murder last week.

The way in which Eliakim Nashapi committed murder when a severe thrashing of his younger brother, Eliphas Namuke, left the latter dead, was “nauseatingly cruel”, Judge Petrus Damaseb commented when he sentenced Nashapi in the High Court in Windhoek on Wednesday. Nashapi (33) was found guilty of murder on August 13.Judge Damaseb convicted him after rejecting his defence that when he gave Namuke a fatal beating with a piece of hose-pipe he had merely wanted to discipline the 16-year-old Namuke over the teenager’s habit of stealing from family members, neighbours and strangers.The Judge again referred to this defence on Wednesday, terming it a “red herring” that Nashapi had tried to hide behind, whereas he in fact had a score to settle with Namuke because the latter had stolen some N$200 from him.Namuke died at his and his brother’s home village, Olyasiiti, after the beating on April 13 2002.”You murdered your biological younger brother who needed your care, love and understanding, not the hatred you evinced towards him when you committed this crime,” the Judge commented during the sentencing, adding that in his view Nashapi had failed to show genuine remorse over the crime.From his remarks it was clear that he was realising he had a tragic case of fratricide before him.Judge Damaseb stated: “By sentencing you I am also sentencing your family in a way: your elderly mother and your other brothers and sisters, all of whom must love you just as much as they did your departed brother.They must be feeling very confused: on the one hand they would want justice for what had happened to Eliphas but must be troubled by the fact that the recipient of that wrath of the law should be one of their own: You.”In addition the person who had to be sentenced over the murder of Namuke had been in a similar situation once before, having been sentenced to ten years imprisonment in October 1995 for stabbing someone to death with a knife, the Judge further noted.”Violence seems to have become your stock-in-trade,” he told Nashapi.”You had hardly been out of prison when the present offence was committed.You seem not to have learnt a lesson.Society has reason to be concerned with you in its midst.”State advocate Ruth Herunga led the prosecution.Nashapi was defended by Sisa Namandje.Nashapi (33) was found guilty of murder on August 13.Judge Damaseb convicted him after rejecting his defence that when he gave Namuke a fatal beating with a piece of hose-pipe he had merely wanted to discipline the 16-year-old Namuke over the teenager’s habit of stealing from family members, neighbours and strangers.The Judge again referred to this defence on Wednesday, terming it a “red herring” that Nashapi had tried to hide behind, whereas he in fact had a score to settle with Namuke because the latter had stolen some N$200 from him.Namuke died at his and his brother’s home village, Olyasiiti, after the beating on April 13 2002.”You murdered your biological younger brother who needed your care, love and understanding, not the hatred you evinced towards him when you committed this crime,” the Judge commented during the sentencing, adding that in his view Nashapi had failed to show genuine remorse over the crime.From his remarks it was clear that he was realising he had a tragic case of fratricide before him.Judge Damaseb stated: “By sentencing you I am also sentencing your family in a way: your elderly mother and your other brothers and sisters, all of whom must love you just as much as they did your departed brother.They must be feeling very confused: on the one hand they would want justice for what had happened to Eliphas but must be troubled by the fact that the recipient of that wrath of the law should be one of their own: You.”In addition the person who had to be sentenced over the murder of Namuke had been in a similar situation once before, having been sentenced to ten years imprisonment in October 1995 for stabbing someone to death with a knife, the Judge further noted.”Violence seems to have become your stock-in-trade,” he told Nashapi.”You had hardly been out of prison when the present offence was committed.You seem not to have learnt a lesson.Society has reason to be concerned with you in its midst.”State advocate Ruth Herunga led the prosecution.Nashapi was defended by Sisa Namandje.

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