Customize Consent Preferences

We use cookies to help you navigate efficiently and perform certain functions. You will find detailed information about all cookies under each consent category below.

The cookies that are categorized as "Necessary" are stored on your browser as they are essential for enabling the basic functionalities of the site. ... 

Always Active

Necessary cookies are required to enable the basic features of this site, such as providing secure log-in or adjusting your consent preferences. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable data.

No cookies to display.

Functional cookies help perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collecting feedback, and other third-party features.

No cookies to display.

Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics such as the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.

No cookies to display.

Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.

No cookies to display.

Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with customized advertisements based on the pages you visited previously and to analyze the effectiveness of the ad campaigns.

No cookies to display.

‘Convict them on all charges’ – State 

‘Convict them on all charges’ – State 

State Advocate Ethel Ndlovu last week urged Windhoek High Court Judge Naomi Shivute to find the two men accused of the gruesome murder of Armin Siegfried Riedel (68) and wife Brunhild Riedel (66) guilty on all 11 counts they are charged with. 

Bernadus Afrikaner (36) and Salathiel Unaeb (48) are facing two counts of murder, two counts of rape, one count of robbery with aggravating circumstances, one count of arson, one count of defeating the course of justice, three counts of contravening the Arms and Ammunition Act, and one count of assault by threat. 

They allegedly burnt the couple’s farmhouse to the ground, causing damage of more than N$500 000 after robbing the residence. It is alleged by the State that they overpowered the couple on their farm Grunfeld in the Gobabis district and murdered them. 

They allegedly killed Brunhild outside the house in an unknown manner, whereafter they shot Armin in the head, causing his death. After ransacking the house and robbing several items, they set the residence on fire with the bodies of the deceased inside, making the cause of death almost impossible to detect. 

Both pleaded not guilty at the start of their trial. 

Ndlovu the evidence, although circumstantial, points in only one direction, and that is that it was the accused who committed the dastardly deeds. 

At first, it was suspected that the deaths were a result of an unfortunate fire, but further investigations led to the arrest of the two accused persons, seven months after the incident. According to the indictment, the accused were employed at the farm and resided there. 

Ndlovu said there is no doubt that the State proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt that the two accused killed the deceased and robbed them of their properties. 

Thereafter, they burnt the deceased’s property, as there was evidence that the fire was intentionally started. 

“Although there were no eyewitnesses to the actual crimes perpetrated in the house, which are the killing, the rape, the arson and the robbing of property, there is circumstantial evidence as the accused was last seen with the deceased while forcing them into the house,” Ndlovu stressed. 

There was also evidence of forced entry into the house as the kitchen door was damaged, Ndlovu stated. She further said taken together with the evidence of admissions the accused made to State witnesses, as well as the recovery of the property proved to be in the farmhouse, the circumstantial evidence is such that it leaves no other reasonable explanation. 

Also, she said, by their own admission, the accused raped the female deceased in coercive circumstances, as she was forced into the house and raped and killed. 

Ndlovu told the judge that to conceal their crimes, the accused set fire to the farmhouse, and Afrikaner washed his overalls to delete all evidence of human blood, diesel or gunshot residue. 

Their Legal Aid-instructed lawyer Mellisa Windisch, argued that the State failed miserably to prove its case against her clients. According to her, the evidence centred mostly on the testimony of a witness whose evidence is merely based on hearsay. 

“Having considered the evidence as a whole in this matter, it is submitted there is no admissible, credible and reliable evidence upon which a court acting carefully can convict, Windisch stressed. She said the onus to prove its case rests squarely on the State, and it is not for the accused to prove their innocence, and they do not even need to tell the truth. 

All they need to show is that their version is reasonably possibly true, and in the present instance, there is no clear evidence linking the accused to the offences. Judge Shivute indicated she will deliver her verdict on 7 May, and the accused remain in custody at the section for trial-awaiting inmates at the Windhoek Correctional Facility. 

– rrouth@nepc.com.na