Record jail terms in massacre trial

‘YOU truly are an embodiment of evil.’
This was one of the remarks from Judge President Petrus Damaseb which brothers Sylvester and Gavin Beukes had to stomach during their sentencing in the High Court in Windhoek yesterday.

The brothers, convicted of murdering eight people in the Kareeboomvloer farm massacre on March 5 2005, were sentenced to prison terms totalling 670 years.Sylvester Beukes (26), who during their trial admitted that he murdered the eight victims, was sentenced to prison terms totalling 395 years. With some of the sentences ordered to be served concurrently, he was sentenced to an effective 105 years in jail.The prison terms meted out to Gavin Beukes (30) totalled 275 years. With some of these sentences likewise ordered to be served concurrently, he was sentenced to an effective 84 years’ imprisonment.Gavin Beukes was present at the farm when the murders were committed. He was convicted based on a finding that he and his brother had acted with a common purpose.Rehoboth resident Stoney Neidel (34), who was found guilty of theft and illegal possession of firearms based on the fact that goods which the brothers had stolen from the farm were later stored at his homes at Rehoboth and on a farm west of Rehoboth, was sentenced to an effective six years’ imprisonment.The Kareeboomvloer farm massacre was a murder case without equal in Namibia’s criminal history, and so are the sentences imposed on the Beukeses.The effective prison term of 105 years which Sylvester Beukes was sentenced to is the longest prison sentence imposed by a Namibian court to date.Addressing the two brothers directly during the sentencing, Judge President Damaseb said: ‘On the day you perpetrated these crimes you made two conscious decisions: The number of people you were going to kill, and how you were going to kill them.’Both choices made by the brothers revealed their evil minds, the judge president said.’You chose to kill as many people as possible, in fact everyone who was at the farm. No one was to be spared – not children, not even a pregnant woman. As for the second, you chose to carry out your crimes in the most brutal fashion imaginable.’It is clear that the brothers wanted their victims to suffer emotionally and physically, Judge President Damaseb said: ‘You wanted them to know that they were going to die, and to die experiencing unthinkable pain.’He continued: ‘In short, you tortured your victims and committed crimes the likes of which I hope I will not have the misfortune to preside over during the remainder of my judicial career. That you are a menace to society is a moot point.’The people murdered at Kareeboomvloer, which is situated between Rehoboth and Kalkrand, were farm owners Justus and Elzabé Erasmus (both 50), who were previous employers of Sylvester Beukes, Sunnybooi Swartbooi (35), who was an employee of the Erasmus couple, Swartbooi’s pregnant partner, Hilma Engelbrecht (32), their children, Christina Engelbrecht (6) and Regina Gertze (4), Swartbooi’s brother, Settie Swartbooi (50), and Deon Gertze (18), who was a relative of Hilma Engelbrecht.The victims were shot, and five of them – with the exception of the Erasmus couple and Sunnybooi Swartbooi – were afterwards set on fire in a storeroom at the farm. Some of them were still breathing when they were set alight, it was later established when autopsies were done on their remains.The manner in which the murders were committed ‘was particularly cruel and brutal’, Judge President Damaseb said.He sentenced Sylvester Beukes to a 45-year prison term on each of the eight murder counts. Gavin Beukes was sentenced to a 30-year prison term on each charge of murder. They were further sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment for housebreaking with intent to rob and robbery with aggravating circumstances, a ten-year jail term for arson, six years in prison for defeating or obstructing the course of justice, and four years’ imprisonment for possession of firearms and ammunition without a licence.Deputy Prosecutor General Antonia Verhoef represented the State during the trial, which started on March 1 2007.Defence lawyer Titus Ipumbu represented Sylvester Beukes, Titus Mbaeva appeared for Gavin Beukes, and Boris Isaacks represented Neidel.

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