‘Muti murder’ case postponed to July

THE start of the trial of three young Kavango Region residents who are accused of committing a grisly murder that was allegedly motivated by a trade in body parts, was postponed for a month in the Rundu Regional Court yesterday.

Having been ready to proceed with the trial of murder suspects Simon Ruvetha, Haushiku Moyo and Manyandero Erastus yesterday, Public Prosecutor Carlo McLeod instead had to ask for the case to be postponed to July 15. That was after Ruvetha had told Magistrate Albertina Mutilitha that he still wanted to get legal aid before the trio goes on trial on charges that they had murdered Moyo’s elderly grandmother in the Popa Falls area during October 2002, and had thereafter mutilated her body.The three suspects have been in custody since early in November 2002, and are now set to remain in the same position for almost another month.Two of them had made startling admissions at their first appearance after their arrest, when both Ruvetha and Moyo told a Magistrate in the Rundu Magistrate’s Court that they and their third co-accused took part in killing the victim in the case, Thihawa Thihaka, in order to get hold of certain parts of her body that they wanted to sell.Erastus denied any knowledge of the killing, but by that stage of the trio’s first court appearance, his two co-accused had both claimed that he was the person who stabbed Thihaka to death while the other two were holding her.Moyo had told the court that after the aged woman had fallen down, having been stabbed four times in her chest, Ruvetha cut off her hands, her ears and part of her nose, and also cut open her body to remove her heart and liver.They also removed her eyes, before they left the scene with the body parts, Moyo claimed.That was on October 7 2002, Ruvetha claimed.Moyo told the court that they returned to the scene later during the night after the killing, to remove the remainder of the body and dump it into the Okavango River.According to Ruvetha and also Moyo himself, Moyo left the scene carrying his grandmother’s severed arms with him in a plastic bag.It was some two weeks later that children in the Popa Falls area discovered a plastic bag with human forearms and hands hanging from a tree in the Popa area.About another two weeks later the Police arrested the three suspects.Moyo and Erastus also did not have legal representation at their appearance in the Regional Court yesterday.They have however indicated that they would be conducting their own defence at their trial.That was after Ruvetha had told Magistrate Albertina Mutilitha that he still wanted to get legal aid before the trio goes on trial on charges that they had murdered Moyo’s elderly grandmother in the Popa Falls area during October 2002, and had thereafter mutilated her body.The three suspects have been in custody since early in November 2002, and are now set to remain in the same position for almost another month.Two of them had made startling admissions at their first appearance after their arrest, when both Ruvetha and Moyo told a Magistrate in the Rundu Magistrate’s Court that they and their third co-accused took part in killing the victim in the case, Thihawa Thihaka, in order to get hold of certain parts of her body that they wanted to sell.Erastus denied any knowledge of the killing, but by that stage of the trio’s first court appearance, his two co-accused had both claimed that he was the person who stabbed Thihaka to death while the other two were holding her.Moyo had told the court that after the aged woman had fallen down, having been stabbed four times in her chest, Ruvetha cut off her hands, her ears and part of her nose, and also cut open her body to remove her heart and liver.They also removed her eyes, before they left the scene with the body parts, Moyo claimed.That was on October 7 2002, Ruvetha claimed.Moyo told the court that they returned to the scene later during the night after the killing, to remove the remainder of the body and dump it into the Okavango River.According to Ruvetha and also Moyo himself, Moyo left the scene carrying his grandmother’s severed arms with him in a plastic bag.It was some two weeks later that children in the Popa Falls area discovered a plastic bag with human forearms and hands hanging from a tree in the Popa area.About another two weeks later the Police arrested the three suspects.Moyo and Erastus also did not have legal representation at their appearance in the Regional Court yesterday.They have however indicated that they would be conducting their own defence at their trial.