Windhoek
The trial in which Junias Fillipus, who was arrested in connection with the rape and murder of schoolgirl Magdalena Stoffels in 2010, is suing the Namibian government for N$2.7 million has been put back on the case management roll of Judge Kobus Miller.
The trial could not start yesterday as the previous managing judge, Petrus Unengu, did not issue a pre-trial order as required by the rules of the High Court. Judge Miller will now conduct pre-trial proceedings afresh on November 5 this year when new trial dates will be set.
Fillipus is suing the government for N$200 000 for alleged wrongful and unlawful arrest on July 27, 2010 and for doing so without a warrant, and without reasonable and probable cause of suspicion. Furthermore, Titus Ipumbu, Fillipus’s lawyer, alleges that he was wrongfully and maliciously charged between July 27 and 30.
Stoffels was a 17-year-old pupil at Dawid Bezuidenhout High School when she was raped and murdered in a riverbed near the Windhoek College of Education in Khomasdal.
According to Ipumbu, the two police officers who charged Fillipus, Sergeant Stephen Amatundu and Warrant Officer Moses Snewe, did not have enough evidence and should have known that there was no prima facie case against Fillipus.
Accordingly, Ipumbu claimed the wrongful detention of Fillipus for 291 days resulted in him suffering damages amounting to N$2 million. During his detention, Fillipus had to make several appearances in the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court in Katutura. The allegedly malicious court proceedings, Ipumbu says, humiliated Fillipus leading to damages amounting to N$250 000.
Ipumbu further asked for interest of 20% per annum from the date of judgment until full payment, as well as for legal costs. The government is opposing the suit and has roped in the services of Senior Counsel Gerson Hinda. Hinda already got to work and filed exceptions on the grounds that the first two claims were not filed within the timeframe of 12 months.
Judge Miller indicated that he would deal with the exceptions and the costs when the trial resumes. The charges against Fillipus were withdrawn on May 13, 2011 as a result of a purported lack of evidence against him.
Fillipus made headlines again in 2014 when he was arrested for bestiality for having sexual intercourse with a goat.
He also spent six months in jail for breaking into his aunt’s house at Onaghulo village, where he stayed immediately after his release from custody in Windhoek in the Stoffels case.