WINDHOEK – Two police officers on Tuesday denied having beaten out a confession from murder and rape accused, Erwin Kock who accuses them of having coerced him to make a confession.
He claims the two police officers beat and threatened him when they took a statement from him, but on Tuesday they denied Kock’s claims. Detective Constable Sebedius Arebeb and Detective Sergeant Pineas Ganaseb both claimed they were not even on duty on the weekend in question and only came to hear about the case when they reported for duty the next Monday. Both of them also said that they were not in any way involved in the investigation and while Arebeb claimed that he saw Kock for the first time that Monday morning when he was taken to court for his first appearance, Ganaseb said that he used to see Kock around.
Boris Isaacks who represents Kock on instructions from the Legal Aid Department took issue with Arebeb who said he saw Kock for the first time when he was arrested. He said what he meant was that he only saw Kock when he was taken to court. With Ganaseb, Isaacks had a field day forcing the Sergeant on various occasions to correct himself. Isaacks for the most part took the Sergeant on about the day of the arrest of Kock and maintained it was on the Sunday, while the Sergeant was adamant it was the Friday.
Deputy Prosecutor General Karin Esterhuizen tried to do damage control by asking the sergeant during re-examination if he meant the Monday on his return to the office.
Isaacks in no mood to be generous insisted that the court orders the State to provide the Occurrence Book for that period before the next court date of February 06 to either confirm or dismiss the two detectives’ claims that they were off-duty that particular week-end.
The State alleges Kock raped, killed and robbed 58-year-old Rebecca Isaaks in Keetmanshoop during the period October 2-3, 2008.
By Roland Routh