The trial of a woman accused of dumping her dead infant after giving birth will only be heard next year.
Making an appearance in the Katutura Magistrate’s Court before magistrate Johannes Shuuveni yesterday, Feliscia Ndevapewa Ruben (21) was informed that the State and her defence team have agreed for the trial to start on 9 February 2023.
Ruben’s trial was first scheduled to start on 6 May 2021. However, the matter could not proceed due to the lockdowns necessitated to mitigate the spread of Covid-19. In addition, she needed to attain legal representation.
Ruben was arrested on 7 June 2019 after she gave birth and allegedly dumped her infant. According to police reports at the time, she gave birth alone in their shack and dumped the baby a few metres in front of the house.
It is suspected that the baby hit its head on the floor during birth and died.
The teenager allegedly gave birth by herself after her uncle went to work and her siblings to school.
It is further alleged that the girl, after giving birth, soaked the bloody blanket in water outside the shack in the process of cleaning up the room.
The then teenage girl arrived in Namibia from the Onehoni village in Angola at the end of May 2019.
On the day of the incident, the police had to whisk the girl away from an angry mob that wanted to lynch her for having dumped her infant.
The mob wanted to break into the shack in which the girl was hiding for her
safety.
The prosecution is now thus charging her with a count of concealment of birth.
She is on bail of N$1 000, which the court extended on warning until her scheduled appearance in court.
– mamakali@nepc.com.na