Sick accused delays triple murder trial

THE last stages of the triple murder trial of Kavango Region resident Maria Kandingo, who is accused of killing three people when she set fire to a hut in a village near the end of 2002, was delayed again due to Kandingo’s ill health on Wednesday.

Kandingo (29) was scheduled to appear before Judge Kato van Niekerk in the High Court in Windhoek on Wednesday for the hearing of final arguments from State advocate Rolanda Gertze and defence counsel Bradley Basson before the Judge gives her verdict. Kandingo is facing three counts of murder, three charges of attempted murder and a count of arson.Kandingo initially had been supposed to appear before Judge Van Niekerk on February 20 for the hearing of the final arguments, but that stage of the trial had to be postponed to this week because Kandingo was reported to be too ill to make it to court.She is now being treated in the Rundu Hospital, Gertze informed the Judge on Wednesday, when Kandingo was again absent from court.According to a doctor’s letter that Gertze handed to the Judge, Kandingo is being treated for tuberculosis and anaemia.Her treatment will continue for a further four months before she should be fit to continue standing trial, the doctor reported.Kandingo has been in ill health since the start of her trial in late May last year.The trial started with Kandingo offering to plead guilty to culpable homicide on the three murder charges.She also pleaded guilty on the arson count, but denied the three attempted murder charges and denied that she had committed any murder.She admitted that she had caused the deaths of her mother-in-law, Selma Kambuki Kasivi (52), and two of Kasivi’s grandchildren, Paulus Kampanza Sinana (4) and Mulweyi Regina Musasa (2), by setting fire to her mother-in-law’s hut at Mururani village on the southern boundary of the Kavango Region on December 5 2002.According to Kandingo’s plea, she set the hut on fire because she was feeling angry and helpless about her mother-in-law’s failure to intervene and come to her rescue in an abusive relationship she was trapped in with Kasivi’s son.Kandingo claimed that she did not know that people were sleeping in the hut that she set alight.She claimed she initially wanted to set fire to the hut where her husband used to sleep, but she then changed her mind and decided to torch the hut where her mother-in-law used to sleep.”I felt hurt and wanted to hurt her back by setting fire to her hut,” she stated in her plea explanation.Gertze presented the evidence of 12 State witnesses to the court before she closed the case for the prosecution in November last year.Basson closed the case for the defence without calling either Kandingo or any other defence witnesses to give testimony.Kandingo remains free on a warning from the court.Kandingo is facing three counts of murder, three charges of attempted murder and a count of arson.Kandingo initially had been supposed to appear before Judge Van Niekerk on February 20 for the hearing of the final arguments, but that stage of the trial had to be postponed to this week because Kandingo was reported to be too ill to make it to court.She is now being treated in the Rundu Hospital, Gertze informed the Judge on Wednesday, when Kandingo was again absent from court.According to a doctor’s letter that Gertze handed to the Judge, Kandingo is being treated for tuberculosis and anaemia.Her treatment will continue for a further four months before she should be fit to continue standing trial, the doctor reported.Kandingo has been in ill health since the start of her trial in late May last year.The trial started with Kandingo offering to plead guilty to culpable homicide on the three murder charges.She also pleaded guilty on the arson count, but denied the three attempted murder charges and denied that she had committed any murder.She admitted that she had caused the deaths of her mother-in-law, Selma Kambuki Kasivi (52), and two of Kasivi’s grandchildren, Paulus Kampanza Sinana (4) and Mulweyi Regina Musasa (2), by setting fire to her mother-in-law’s hut at Mururani village on the southern boundary of the Kavango Region on December 5 2002.According to Kandingo’s plea, she set the hut on fire because she was feeling angry and helpless about her mother-in-law’s failure to intervene and come to her rescue in an abusive relationship she was trapped in with Kasivi’s son.Kandingo claimed that she did not know that people were sleeping in the hut that she set alight.She claimed she initially wanted to set fire to the hut where her husband used to sleep, but she then changed her mind and decided to torch the hut where her mother-in-law used to sleep.”I felt hurt and wanted to hurt her back by setting fire to her hut,” she stated in her plea explanation.Gertze presented the evidence of 12 State witnesses to the court before she closed the case for the prosecution in November last year.Basson closed the case for the defence without calling either Kandingo or any other defence witnesses to give testimony.Kandingo remains free on a warning from the court.