Iuze Mukube 

Stockley Kauejao’s (51), who was sentenced for the murder of stock investigator Hiambepo ‘Major’ Kazeurua was unsuccessful in his quest to appeal his conviction on Friday. 

Kauejao’s application for leave to appeal his conviction with the Supreme Court was dismissed by Windhoek High Court Acting Judge Alfred Siboleka. 

Another convict, Afas Kamutjemo, who has since passed away, was an appellant to the application. 

Judge Siboleka stated that the court found that the evidence overwhelmingly proved their involvement in the crimes. He concluded that the charges were proven beyond a reasonable doubt. 

“In the result the application for leave to appeal is declined for lack of merit,” the Judge ruled. 

On the appellant’s first ground that his right to legal representation was violated and he was not given enough time to secure one, the Judge said this was a lie of the highest order. 

This is because at the start of the trial in September 2015, all four accused, including Kauejao, were legally represented. 

It was only after the State’s close of the case in 2018 that legal representation issues arose, with a request for a postponement to facilitate a recusal application for new counsel. On appeal, the appellant argued the court relied on accused two’s confession to convict him, which the Judge denied. Judge Siboleka confirmed the appellant was convicted based on his own evidence, that of his late co-accused, Kamutjemo, his fiancée’s evidence, and other evidence. 

On the third ground, the Judge stated that the court did not misdirect itself on relying on the evidence of Jesaya Daniel in convicting the appellant on charges of murder and defeating the course of justice. 

On this ground, the appellant argued that the court used the evidence even though the witness, Daniel, had stated he had no direct knowledge of the content of the telephone conversation between him and a co-accused. 

Another ground of appeal was that the court erred on relying heavily on telephone calls allegedly made between the accused and others, without evidence as to the content. 

The Judge dismissed the appeal, stating the police were justified in obtaining the MTC telephone data, which was admitted in court to counter the ground. Siboleka noted the mobile calls seemed to have escalated between the late accused and the appellant. 

The Judge said the court did not err in law in concluding the appellant wanted to verify the deceased was killed. 

The court did this by following legal requirements before convicting on circumstantial evidence.Judge Siboleka affirmed the appellant’s conviction, stating that the evidence proved beyond doubt that the crimes were correctly convicted. He also declined the leave to appeal. 

–mukubeiuze@gmail.com