WINDHOEK – Dumingu Zuzee Da Costa is an exemplary trial-awaiting prisoner with excellent prospects for rehabilitation, his defense counsel Christian Nambahu told Judge Nate Ndauendapo on Wednesday.
Nambahu was arguing in mitigation of sentence for Da Costa in his (Da Costa’s) and Joseph Wasuka Nunda’s murder and robbery trial. They were already convicted of robbing and killing German flight instructor Ralph Köhnke on December 26 2006.
The 44-year-old Da Costa and 40-year-old Nunda were convicted on counts of murder, robbery with aggravating circumstances and defeating or obstructing the course of justice, alternatively violating a dead body on August 16 last year. It was found that they acted with direct intent when the deceased was struck with a stone on his head.
According to the indictment the two men killed and robbed Köhnke, in life a flight instructor at the Namibia Aviation Academy, at his house in Windhoek West after which they took his body to Goreangab Dam, doused it with petrol and set it alight in an attempt to destroy evidence and frustrate an investigation into his death.
They are also accused of robbing the deceased of various items including a safe, a car, an unknown amount of foreign currency, two firearms, various computer equipment and power tools.
Da Costa and Nunda pleaded not guilty to all charges.
On Wednesday last week during submissions on the sentence Nambahu told Judge Ndauendapo that Da Costa has for the past nine years during his incarceration showed a genuine attempt to rehabilitate himself. He said that Da Costa’s qualifications and experience in a relatively unknown field could prove valuable to Namibia and he can once again become a productive member of society.
He asked that the court does not take the opportunity away from Da Costa by imposing a severe sentence.
According to Nambahu, Da Costa has become a born-again Christian in custody and is engaged in studies while he also teaches the Bible to fellow inmates. He said that the court should take into consideration that the offences Da Costa was convicted of were interconnected and asked that the sentences to be imposed run concurrently.
Winnie Christiaans for Nunda argued that there was no direct evidence as to what transpired at the deceased’s house that evening. He said that the accused chose not to explain to the court what exactly happened.
According to Christiaans there was no evidence that Nunda planned to kill the deceased. While he accepted the court’s finding that the killing was with direct intent, there was no evidence that it was premeditated, Christiaans stressed.
He too asked that the court should consider the lengthy period the accused have been in custody since their arrest when deciding on the sentence.
State Advocate Innocencia Nyoni who took over the trial after Deputy Prosecutor General Belinda Wantenaar resigned, argued that society expects from the court to punish those that transgress against them. “The courts have the duty to exact vengeance on behalf of society, or society will decide to take the law into their own hands,” she told the judge.
By Roland Routh