Five await sentencing in teen gang-rape case

FOR five young men whose high school career ended in Police holding cells after they were arrested on gang-rape charges in late 2006, tomorrow is set to be one of the most important days in their lives so far, with a High Court Judge set to sentence them on charges of rape and kidnapping.

During their trial before Acting Judge Annel Silungwe, Tobias Nahenda (23), Mateus Nuugonya (21), Simson Petrus (23), Fillipus Namashongo (21) and Festus Shipanga (21) denied charges that they gang-raped a 16-year-old girl at Onayena, a village about 20 kilometres east of Ondangwa, on October 27 2006.
Their protestations of innocence did not save the five from being found guilty, though.
Acting Judge Silungwe convicted Nahenda, Petrus, Namashongo and Shipanga on one count of rape each on December 12, while Nangombe was found guilty on two charges of rape and a count of kidnapping.
On Friday, all of the five still stopped short of admitting their guilt when they testified before Acting Judge Silungwe in mitigation of the sentences that are to be imposed on them. All of them, however, extended their apologies to the court, the complainant in the case, and to the public, as they asked the court not to sentence them to the heavy terms of imprisonment that the prosecution has suggested should be handed to them.
In arguments filed with the court, Deputy Prosecutor General Zenobia Barry suggested that Nahenda, Namashongo and Shipanga should be sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment each, while Nahenda and Petrus should be sentenced to 20-year prison terms each on the rape charges and Nahenda should also be sentenced to an additional jail term on the kidnapping charge.
According to the evidence heard during the trial, Nahenda took the complainant to a flat near the school where they were pupils on the evening of October 27 2006. At the flat, he had sexual intercourse with her.
He then left the room, after which someone entered and also had sex with the girl. She said she realised only then it was not Nahenda.
When she tried to resist, she was overpowered and a succession of men had sex with her, she testified.
The court also heard that during the night in question, after the five accused had returned to the school hostel where they were staying, a hostel roommate of the five heard them bragging to each other about having had sex with the girl in succession.
In his arguments on the sentences that are to be imposed defence lawyer Sisa Namandje, who is representing all of the five, told Acting Judge Silungwe on Friday that it was not disputed that the crimes they were convicted of were serious.
He argued that the five were all still very young – aged between 18 and 21 – at the time of the incident, that they were all first offenders and that they appear to come from unstable or poor family backgrounds. Shipanga, for instance, told the court that he is currently sharing a cell at Windhoek Central Prison with his father, who is also a trial-awaiting prisoner.
Namandje remarked that while it was unavoidable that they would face imprisonment, there were substantial and compelling circumstances in their case that entitles the court to deviate from the sentences being prescribed by the Combating of Rape Act.
According to Barry, the prescribed terms faced by Nahenda, Namashongo and Shipanga are terms of 10 years’ imprisonment each, while Nangombe and Petrus, who were convicted on the basis that it was found that each of them had been part of a group of people that raped the complainant, face prescribed minimum terms of 15 years’ imprisonment each.
Each of the five told the court on Friday that they were kept in Police custody until being released on bail around the middle of 2007. werner@namibia.com.na