Ex-teacher found guilty of arson murder

FORMER teacher Efraim Rachimo Haradoëb has been found guilty of murdering his teacher girlfriend, Regina Kastoor, by pouring petrol over her and setting her aflame at Gibeon more than seven years ago.

Haradoëb (35) heard Judge Mavis Gibson’s verdict in his long-interrupted trial in the High Court in Windhoek yesterday. His immediate reaction was to fire his defence counsel, Sarel Maritz, and to blame him for the court’s decision.”My Lady, I feel betrayed.I feel betrayed by my legal counsel, because he didn’t carry out my instructions,” Haradoëb told the court when it reconvened to try to sort out his legal representation after he terminated Maritz’s mandate to represent him following the judgement.He had given Maritz written arguments that the lawyer was supposed to give to the court, but this was not done, and he feels the verdict would have been different if Maritz had carried out his instructions, Haradoëb told the Judge.By yesterday afternoon, the Legal Aid Directorate had instructed another defence lawyer, Zagrys Grobler, to take Maritz’s place.Grobler is the third defence counsel that the Directorate has provided to Haradoëb since the start of his trial in mid-June 1999.Haradoëb is set to return to court tomorrow for the hearing of evidence and legal arguments before he is sentenced on the charges of murder and arson.Following his entry into the trial, Grobler asked to be given until tomorrow to read the trial record and consult with Haradoëb before sentencing.Haradoëb was accused of murdering 23-year-old Kastoor, who was a teacher at Gibeon, by setting her on fire in her flat at the hostel of the C.!!Oaseb Secondary School at Gibeon on November 16 1998.She died in a Windhoek hospital 10 days later.Haradoëb’s trial was already in its end stages when he escaped from Police custody on February 1 2000.Only in June last year, after he had been arrested in South Africa on charges of having stolen from and defrauded several women with whom he allegedly had romantic relationships, was he returned to Namibia.When the trial finally resumed early this month, Haradoëb was given another chance to produce witnesses that he claimed would back up his alibi defence by testifying that he was not at the scene of the attack on Kastoor.Neither of those witnesses seems to have impressed Judge Gibson.”As regards the accused’s belated witnesses, there can be no possible doubt that these were devoid of any truth,” she commented in her judgement.The two alibi witnesses’ names had never been mentioned by Haradoëb during the trial, until he had been rearrested following his escape and the interrupted proceedings resumed.The two witnesses told the court last week that they had seen Haradoëb at Keetmanshoop and Karasburg respectively on the day of the attack on Kastoor.One of these witnesses told the court that he never discussed his claimed meeting with Haradoëb at Keetmanshoop with Haradoëb himself while they were sharing a cell following Haradoëb’s return to Namibia.The other also said – “quite unconvincingly”, in Judge Gibson’s opinion – that he and Haradoëb did not discuss his encounter with Haradoëb at Karasburg when he saw him again at the Windhoek Police station in July 2000.That claim of a meeting with Haradoëb in July 2000 was an obvious lie, because it was not disputed that at that time Haradoëb was on the run after his escape from custody in February 2000, Judge Gibson said.The State’s case against Haradoëb rested largely on the evidence of a single eyewitness who told the court that she knew Haradoëb, that she was with Kastoor at the time of the attack, and that she saw Haradoëb pour petrol over Kastoor from a half-litre container, and set her on fire after striking a match.While her evidence had to be treated with caution because she was a single witness, there was powerful evidence that verified her claim that Haradoëb was at Gibeon on the evening of November 16 1998, Judge Gibson said.A security guard had seen Haradoëb running from the Gibeon school premises that evening, while the station master at Tses – where Haradoëb worked as a teacher – had seen him board the train as the only passenger going to Keetmanshoop in the early hours of the next morning, the Judge recounted.Both those witnesses exposed Haradoëb’s defence of having an alibi as false, she said.She found that Haradoëb had planned the attack because he believed “quite wrongly” that Kastoor had infected him with HIV, and also because he was jealous of a new boyfriend that she had after she had tried to end her relationship with Haradoëb.”Thus when he poured and lit the petrol he intended her to burn to death or sustain such wounds from which she could never recover,” she said, finding that Haradoëb had a direct intention to kill Kastoor.State Advocate Rolanda Gertze is prosecuting.His immediate reaction was to fire his defence counsel, Sarel Maritz, and to blame him for the court’s decision.”My Lady, I feel betrayed.I feel betrayed by my legal counsel, because he didn’t carry out my instructions,” Haradoëb told the court when it reconvened to try to sort out his legal representation after he terminated Maritz’s mandate to represent him following the judgement.He had given Maritz written arguments that the lawyer was supposed to give to the court, but this was not done, and he feels the verdict would have been different if Maritz had carried out his instructions, Haradoëb told the Judge.By yesterday afternoon, the Legal Aid Directorate had instructed another defence lawyer, Zagrys Grobler, to take Maritz’s place.Grobler is the third defence counsel that the Directorate has provided to Haradoëb since the start of his trial in mid-June 1999.Haradoëb is set to return to court tomorrow for the hearing of evidence and legal arguments before he is sentenced on the charges of murder and arson.Following his entry into the trial, Grobler asked to be given until tomorrow to read the trial record and consult with Haradoëb before sentencing.Haradoëb was accused of murdering 23-year-old Kastoor, who was a teacher at Gibeon, by setting her on fire in her flat at the hostel of the C.!!Oaseb Secondary School at Gibeon on November 16 1998.She died in a Windhoek hospital 10 days later.Haradoëb’s trial was already in its end stages when he escaped from Police custody on February 1 2000.Only in June last year, after he had been arrested in South Africa on charges of having stolen from and defrauded several women with whom he allegedly had romantic relationships, was he returned to Namibia.When the trial finally resumed early this month, Haradoëb was given another chance to produce witnesses that he claimed would back up his alibi defence by testifying that he was not at the scene of the attack on Kastoor.Neither of those witnesses seems to have impressed Judge Gibson.”As regards the accused’s belated witnesses, there can be no possible doubt that these were devoid of any truth,” she commented in her judgement.The two alibi witnesses’ names had never been mentioned by Haradoëb during the trial, until he had been rearrested following his escape and the interrupted proceedings resumed.The two witnesses told the court last week that they had seen Haradoëb at Keetmanshoop and Karasburg respectively on the day of the attack on Kastoor.One of these witnesses told the court that he never discussed his claimed meeting with Haradoëb at Keetmanshoop with Haradoëb himself while they were sharing a cell following Haradoëb’s return to Namibia.The other also said – “quite unconvincingly”, in Judge Gibson’s opinion – that he and Haradoëb did not discuss his encounter with Haradoëb at Karasburg when he saw him again at the Windhoek Police station in July 2000.That claim of a meeting with Haradoëb in July 2000 was an obvious lie, because it was not disputed that at that time Haradoëb was on the run after his escape from custody in February 2000, Judg
e Gibson said.The State’s case against Haradoëb rested largely on the evidence of a single eyewitness who told the court that she knew Haradoëb, that she was with Kastoor at the time of the attack, and that she saw Haradoëb pour petrol over Kastoor from a half-litre container, and set her on fire after striking a match.While her evidence had to be treated with caution because she was a single witness, there was powerful evidence that verified her claim that Haradoëb was at Gibeon on the evening of November 16 1998, Judge Gibson said.A security guard had seen Haradoëb running from the Gibeon school premises that evening, while the station master at Tses – where Haradoëb worked as a teacher – had seen him board the train as the only passenger going to Keetmanshoop in the early hours of the next morning, the Judge recounted.Both those witnesses exposed Haradoëb’s defence of having an alibi as false, she said.She found that Haradoëb had planned the attack because he believed “quite wrongly” that Kastoor had infected him with HIV, and also because he was jealous of a new boyfriend that she had after she had tried to end her relationship with Haradoëb.”Thus when he poured and lit the petrol he intended her to burn to death or sustain such wounds from which she could never recover,” she said, finding that Haradoëb had a direct intention to kill Kastoor.State Advocate Rolanda Gertze is prosecuting.