High Court Judge Johanna Salionga on Friday meted out the harshest punishment the Namibian Constitution permits when she sentenced three people convicted of murder to life imprisonment.
They will each spend at least 25 years in jail before being eligible for parole if they behave themselves.
Anastancia Lubinda (40), was convicted of murder, read with the provisions of the Combating of Domestic Violence Act, while her co-accused David Kondjara (40) and Donald Hindjou (31) were convicted of murder with direct intent. The judge found that they actively participated in a plot to murder Lubinda’s husband, Peter Rosco Muleke, who was 36 at the time of his demise. The lifeless body of Muleke was found near Penduka in the Goreangab area on 30 March 2015, with his body surrounded by bloody rocks.
Judge Salionga said it is not only women who must be protected against violence against them, but men have the same rights to be protected against violent partners.
According to her, the murder was a despicable deed, borne from the mind of a woman who professed that the deceased was “the love of her life”.
She lured him to his death without a second thought and does not deserve the mercy of this court, the judge said, adding that her two co-convicts similarly do not deserve mercy. They stood by and did nothing while the deceased was mercilessly stoned to death, and did not even call for medical assistance, the judge stated.
Salionga said society expects the courts to meet out deterrent sentences, otherwise they might take the law into their own hands. “Society must be assured that we will not tolerate contract killers in our midst,” the judge stressed.
Lubinda hired the men to kill her husband for a fee of N$5 000. One of their co-accused, David Matali, died in custody.
The judge acquitted two of their co-accused, Abiud Uazeua (40) and Oviritje musician Dollam Tjitjahuma after the State conceded that they failed to conclusively prove their case.
Lubinda, Kondjara and Hindjou were convicted on the strength of confessions they made to different magistrates in which they admitted to being at the crime scene, but denied participating in the brutal act. They disputed the confessions during the trial, and said they were unduly influenced to make the confessions. Salionga, however, promptly admitted the confessions into evidence.
The State was represented by Marthino Olivier during the trial, Kondjara by Paulus Shilongo and Hindjou by Ray Silungwe.