ONE man died, and another is in hospital after a woman (21) set the house where the two were sleeping at Lüderitz on fire on Tuesday, claiming that they had raped her.
The police identified the dead man as 29-year-old Sebastian Janse.
According to the police, the other man sustained severe burns, and is in hospital under police guard.
The woman yesterday appeared in the Lüderitz Magistrate’s Court on charges of arson, murder and attempted murder. She was remanded in police custody, and is expected to appear in court again on 28 March.
//Kharas police crime investigations coordinator Chrispin Mubebo yesterday said the unidentified man was in a stable condition.
Mubebo said the woman confessed the arson when they started investigating the cause of the fire, and then laid charges of rape against the two men.
Mubebo said the woman claimed she set the house on fire because the two men had gang-raped her.
The woman, Mubebo said, told the police that she and the two men were drinking together, and that the two allegedly later raped her in the house she torched.
According to Mubebo, the woman said she left the house after the rape, but returned later when the men were sleeping and set it on fire.
“She set the house on fire with the intention to kill them out of anger,” said Mubebo, adding that the police were also investigating the gang rape case.
The woman’s brother, who cannot be named because his sister is a victim of a suspected rape, told yesterday that she also confessed setting alight the house to take revenge on the men for what they had allegedly done to her.
“My sister told me she did not expect the two men, whom she regarded as friends, to rape her. Because of that anguish, she took revenge on them,” he said.
His family, the brother said, would neither blame his sister nor her alleged rapists for what happened because all of them were not sober when they committed the alleged crimes.
“We will pray for her as well as for the speedy recovery of the man who sustained the burns,” he stated, adding that it was “sad” that one of the men had died.
The brother also said his family intended to visit the deceased’s relatives as well as the man in the hospital to ask for forgiveness.
Human rights lawyer Norman Tjombe yesterday commented “that is indeed a sad case,” saying he believes on the available facts that the suspect will not succeed in defending herself against murder and attempted murder charges on the basis that the same men had raped her.
“The defence of self-defence would only be successful when there is imminent harm. At best, it will be an issue to be considered in mitigation of sentence to be imposed by a court of law,” he stated.
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