Prosecutor proposes 45-year prison term in arson-murder case

THE Prosecutor in the High Court trial of former teacher Efraim Rachimo Haradoëb, who was convicted last week of murdering his girlfriend by dousing her with petrol and setting her on fire, on Friday asked that he be sentenced to a 45-year prison term without the option of parole.

A 40-year jail term for the murder and an additional five-year prison sentence on the arson charge should be the sentence that Haradoëb (35) should receive, State Advocate Rolanda Gertze suggested when she addressed Judge Mavis Gibson on the former teacher’s pending sentencing on Friday. In addition to that, the court should also order that Haradoëb would not be eligible to be released on parole before he had served his sentences in full, Gertze further suggested.Judge Gibson is set to sentence Haradoëb today.She found him guilty as charged on counts of murder and arson on Wednesday.Haradoëb was accused of killing his teacher girlfriend, Regina Kastoor (23), by pouring petrol over her and setting her alight in her room at the hostel of the C.!!Oaseb Secondary School at Gibeon on November 16 1998.Part of the room was also set on fire.Kastoor died 10 days later in a Windhoek hospital.Haradoëb had been responsible for “a brutal and callous deed”, and there were no mitigating or extenuating circumstances present in his case, Gertze argued on Friday.She said the court should make use of an opportunity to send out a message that such acts of violence against women are unacceptable and would be punished severely.Defence counsel Zagrys Grobler, who took over Haradoëb’s legal representation after Haradoëb had dismissed his previous lawyer following his conviction, however told the court that Gertze’s argument on the sentence was unbalanced, emphasising only the seriousness of the crime.Haradoëb has been found guilty of a “horrendous crime” and it is inevitable that he should be sent to prison, Grobler acknowledged, but 40 years’ imprisonment was excessive, he told the Judge.Haradoëb still maintained his innocence when he testified in mitigation of sentence.He claimed he had been shocked to hear of Kastoor’s death while he was in Cape Town – “but I still believe that I was not responsible”, he told the court.”It’s unfortunate that I was never given an opportunity to mourn the person that I loved,” he stated.Despite the testimony of an eyewitness who told the court that she saw him carry out the attack on Kastoor, as well as the testimony of another witness who told the court that he saw Haradoëb at Gibeon that same evening and a third witness who testified that he saw Haradoëb boarding a train for Keetmanshoop at Tses during the early morning hours of the next day, Haradoëb told the court: “One hundred per cent I still maintain that I was not there, and I was not present at the scene.”When Gertze asked him why he had escaped from Police custody on February 1 2000 – his trial remained in limbo for six years after that, and he was arrested in South Africa and deported back to Namibia as an illegal immigrant only in June last year – Haradoëb answered that people reacted differently to different situations, and that was just his reaction.”Me personally, I didn’t take it and I still can’t take it.That’s how I act,” was his explanation.He also added: “But let the law take its course.The truth will prevail one day.”In addition to that, the court should also order that Haradoëb would not be eligible to be released on parole before he had served his sentences in full, Gertze further suggested.Judge Gibson is set to sentence Haradoëb today.She found him guilty as charged on counts of murder and arson on Wednesday.Haradoëb was accused of killing his teacher girlfriend, Regina Kastoor (23), by pouring petrol over her and setting her alight in her room at the hostel of the C.!!Oaseb Secondary School at Gibeon on November 16 1998.Part of the room was also set on fire.Kastoor died 10 days later in a Windhoek hospital.Haradoëb had been responsible for “a brutal and callous deed”, and there were no mitigating or extenuating circumstances present in his case, Gertze argued on Friday.She said the court should make use of an opportunity to send out a message that such acts of violence against women are unacceptable and would be punished severely.Defence counsel Zagrys Grobler, who took over Haradoëb’s legal representation after Haradoëb had dismissed his previous lawyer following his conviction, however told the court that Gertze’s argument on the sentence was unbalanced, emphasising only the seriousness of the crime.Haradoëb has been found guilty of a “horrendous crime” and it is inevitable that he should be sent to prison, Grobler acknowledged, but 40 years’ imprisonment was excessive, he told the Judge.Haradoëb still maintained his innocence when he testified in mitigation of sentence.He claimed he had been shocked to hear of Kastoor’s death while he was in Cape Town – “but I still believe that I was not responsible”, he told the court.”It’s unfortunate that I was never given an opportunity to mourn the person that I loved,” he stated.Despite the testimony of an eyewitness who told the court that she saw him carry out the attack on Kastoor, as well as the testimony of another witness who told the court that he saw Haradoëb at Gibeon that same evening and a third witness who testified that he saw Haradoëb boarding a train for Keetmanshoop at Tses during the early morning hours of the next day, Haradoëb told the court: “One hundred per cent I still maintain that I was not there, and I was not present at the scene.”When Gertze asked him why he had escaped from Police custody on February 1 2000 – his trial remained in limbo for six years after that, and he was arrested in South Africa and deported back to Namibia as an illegal immigrant only in June last year – Haradoëb answered that people reacted differently to different situations, and that was just his reaction.”Me personally, I didn’t take it and I still can’t take it.That’s how I act,” was his explanation.He also added: “But let the law take its course.The truth will prevail one day.”