Windhoek
Double murder suspect Julius ‘Namab’ Dausab will hear his fate on January 31 next year Judge Alfred Siboleka indicated in the Windhoek High Court on Friday.
The judge made the ruling after hearing extensive submissions from both State Advocate Erich Moyo and Dausab’s lawyer, Bradley Basson. Moyo had asked the court to convict Dausab on the charges he face, as he maintains he proved all the allegations against Dausab beyond reasonable doubt.
Forty-six-year-old Dausab is in court for a double murder charge for the fatal shooting of two women in the Ovitoto in June 2009. The State alleges he killed his late girlfriend, Paulina Kenamuni, 28, and her mother, Elfrieda Kenamuni, 44, by shooting them with a hunting rifle.
The ending of the relationship by the younger woman, who used to live with Dausab in Otjiwarongo, is what is believed to have triggered the events that led to the tragedy. On that fateful day Dausab drove from Otjiwarongo to the home of his girlfriend’s parents at Okandjira in an apparent attempt at reconciliation.
Earlier reports indicate that at around midnight on the day in question Dausab knocked at the door of the shack and when his ex-girlfriend’s mother went to open the door he allegedly pointed the barrel of a .308 hunting rifle through a hole in the door and shot the woman in the chest.
Reports further indicate that Paulina had by that time already been shot dead with the same gun. She was also severely beaten. It is alleged that after he killed the two women, Dausab drove back to Otjiwarongo, but the police arrested him before he reached there.
Dausab is also accused of having possessed the alleged murder weapon and ammunition without a license. He has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges.
While Dausab admits to being at the scene when the two women were shot, he denies killing them, instead claiming the murders were committed by an unknown man, which he described as being short and stout and driving a white car.
Basson argued strongly that the State failed miserably to prove any of the charges leveled against Dausab and asked the court to dismiss all charges. Going through the testimonies of the State witnesses one by one Basson dissected them and pointed out various contradictions and shortcomings in their evidence.
According to him, the State’s whole case rests on circumstantial evidence that is not sufficient for a conviction.
While Moyo admits the State’s case hinges on circumstantial evidence, he said in the circumstances it directly implicates Dausab in the commission of the heinous crimes.
Dausab is currently on bail of N$40 000 with stringent conditions attached. He was released on bail after he claimed to have contracted asthma and pneumonia while in the trial-awaiting cells at the Windhoek Central Prison.
Previous court appearances for Dausab also had to be postponed on several occasions after he reportedly contracted a severe and contagious case of tuberculosis.