Gang murder and rape suspects await verdict

THE four men accused of kidnapping, gang-raping and murdering a young mother of two children in Windhoek’s Okuryangava area a little over four years ago are set to hear the verdict in their trial in the High Court in Windhoek at the end of next month.

All four of the defence lawyers representing the four charged men in the trial before Acting Judge Claus Hinrichsen argued at the end of last week that the evidence presented during the trial was not enough to convict any of the men on the main charges of murder, rape and kidnapping.State advocate Ed Marondedze argued, though, that there was evidence – even if a great part of it was circumstantial – on which the men could and should be found guilty.Sam Angolo (25), Jonathan Taapopi Ashipala (23), Thomas Phillemon (27) and Stefanus Lazarus (28) are accused of raping and murdering Theresia Afrikaner, a 23-year-old mother of two children, after they had kidnapped her from a bar in Okuryangava during the night of May 13 to 14 2005.The prosecution could not present the court with any direct evidence of what had happened to Afrikaner after Angolo and Ashipala were seen dragging her off into the dark in the early morning hours of May 14 2005. Before Afrikaner was dragged away, she had been assaulted by Angolo and Ashipala, witnesses who were at the scenes of at least two separate assaults on her told the court.Angolo was seen kicking, punching and slapping her. Ashipala was seen slapping her and punching her in the face, eyewitnesses told the court.After being dragged out of view, Afrikaner was not seen alive again. Her half-naked body – her head bruised and swollen – was found lying in a riverbed in Okuryangava a few hours after the last witnesses had seen her.After the prosecution closed its case, all four men chose to remain silent and not to testify in their own defence.Marondedze argued that Acting Judge Hinrichsen should draw an adverse inference from this decision to remain silent. He argued that the cumulative effect of the largely circumstantial evidence that the State presented against them was overwhelming, and said all four of the men should as a result be found guilty.Defence lawyer Jan Wessels, representing Angolo, conceded that it had been proven that Angolo was guilty of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm because of his assault on Afrikaner.With no witnesses having seen Angolo murdering, raping or kidnapping her, however, he should not be convicted on those main charges, Wessels argued. He said the evidence showed that the place where Afrikaner’s body was found was not in the direction that she had been taken by Ashipala and Angolo. With a couple of hours having passed from when she was last seen to when her body was discovered, it was possible she may have encountered other people who may have been responsible for her death, he argued.Ashipala’s lawyer, Profysen Muluti, conceded that Ashipala could be convicted of assault.Muluti told Acting Judge Hinrichsen that a statement that Ashipala made to the Police could not be used as evidence against Ashipala’s co-accused, because he did not repeat that statement under oath during the trial.In the statement, Ashi-pala claimed he saw Angolo raping Afrikaner after Lazarus and Phillemon had thrown stones at her.The court should, however, take into account that Ashipala also stated that after he saw this, he left the scene, which meant that he did not associate himself with the deeds of Angolo and company any longer, Muluti argued.With Lazarus and Phillemon implicated the least in the evidence before the court, their defence lawyers, Edwin Coetzee and Clive Kavendjii, also argued that they should be acquitted on all counts.Judgement is scheduled to be given on July 30.werner@namibian.com.na