Sentencing date set in NamPost robbery case

THE only person to have been charged in connection with an alleged robbery at a NamPost agency in Windhoek almost five years ago is set to be sentenced in the Windhoek Regional Court early next year.

Abner Mungandjo Haufiku (33) was back in the Windhoek Regional Court on Friday, four weeks after he was convicted on a charge of robbery with aggravating circumstances that flowed from an alleged armed robbery at the NamPost office at Windhoek’s Maerua Mall shopping centre on January 25 2003. Haufiku was found guilty on the basis of a single fingerprint that was found at the scene of the alleged robbery.That fingerprint, found on a door in the counter in the NamPost agency, matched the print of Haufiku’s left middle finger.The place where the print was found was also where the alleged robbers jumped over the counter to where a female NamPost employee was on duty.The alleged robbery, in which N$6 000 in cash and a watch belonging to the NamPost employee were stolen, was carried out by three men, the Magistrate heard during Haufiku’s trial.Haufiku was already in custody on another robbery charge – he was subsequently convicted on that charge as well, and is now serving a 13-year jail term for that – when it was established that a fingerprint linked him to the scene of the alleged robbery at NamPost.With his appearance in court on Friday, Magistrate Jacobs heard the last arguments before Haufiku’s sentencing from Public Prosecutor Brownwell Uirab and defence lawyer Tulonga Nakamhela.Haufiku was not employed at the time of the incident, but made a living doing plumbing work when and where his services were needed, Nakamhela told the Magistrate.He asked the Magistrate to allow the sentence to run together with the jail term that Haufiku is serving now.Uirab asked the Magistrate to impose a lengthy prison term, and not to order that this be served concurrently with the sentence that Haufiku is now serving.Society needs to be protected from Haufiku because of the offences he has twice been convicted of, Uirab said.Magistrate Jacobs postponed the case to January 11 for sentencing.Haufiku was found guilty on the basis of a single fingerprint that was found at the scene of the alleged robbery.That fingerprint, found on a door in the counter in the NamPost agency, matched the print of Haufiku’s left middle finger.The place where the print was found was also where the alleged robbers jumped over the counter to where a female NamPost employee was on duty.The alleged robbery, in which N$6 000 in cash and a watch belonging to the NamPost employee were stolen, was carried out by three men, the Magistrate heard during Haufiku’s trial. Haufiku was already in custody on another robbery charge – he was subsequently convicted on that charge as well, and is now serving a 13-year jail term for that – when it was established that a fingerprint linked him to the scene of the alleged robbery at NamPost.With his appearance in court on Friday, Magistrate Jacobs heard the last arguments before Haufiku’s sentencing from Public Prosecutor Brownwell Uirab and defence lawyer Tulonga Nakamhela.Haufiku was not employed at the time of the incident, but made a living doing plumbing work when and where his services were needed, Nakamhela told the Magistrate.He asked the Magistrate to allow the sentence to run together with the jail term that Haufiku is serving now.Uirab asked the Magistrate to impose a lengthy prison term, and not to order that this be served concurrently with the sentence that Haufiku is now serving.Society needs to be protected from Haufiku because of the offences he has twice been convicted of, Uirab said.Magistrate Jacobs postponed the case to January 11 for sentencing.