WINDHOEK – The application for parole which Thomas Florin, ‘The Butcher of Swakopmund’ launched in the Windhoek High Court could still be on track after Judge Harald Geier stayed his decision until the outcome of Florin’s and 23 other long-term prisoners’ applications before Judge Collins Parker.
In the application before Judge Parker long-term inmates including Florin are asking the High Court to provide clarity on the number of years they have to spend in custody before they can become eligible for parole. Steve ‘Ricco’ Kamahere serving a life sentence leads the group of petitioners, which includes Johannes Witbooi, who was sentenced in March 1988, Andries Ei-Aseb and Joseph Boois, who both say they were sentenced in 1992, Abed Thomas Naobeb, Paulus Shimwefeleni, Thomas Florin, Stefanus Skeyer, Hermanus Slinger, Wilbard Nankema, August Gariseb, Dawid Boois, John Kharuchab, Johannes Paulus Nghishekwa, Dawid Rooi, Patrick Somseb, John Narib, Fred Kavale, Joshua Shifiona, Joseph Hamutenya, Laurentius Koopman, Wynand Adams, Richard Bloodstaan, and Linus Jonas.
Florin, who claims to be a devout born-again Christian, wants the court to order the Minister of Safety and Security, the head of the Windhoek Central Prison, and the chairperson of the Parole Board to consider releasing him on parole as a matter of urgency.
He argued that in terms of the policy followed by prison authorities, a life term of imprisonment is for administrative purposes regarded as a 20-year prison sentence, and once a prisoner has served half of that sentence he or she can be considered for release on parole.
Florin was sentenced in December 1999 on a conviction of murder to life imprisonment after then Judge President Tio Peek found that the State proved beyond a reasonable doubt that he murdered his wife Monika Florin (30) in the couple’s home at Swakopmund in early June 1998, and that he thereafter cut up her body, stripped it of its flesh, cooked the remains and hid her bones in the ceiling of their house.
By Roland Routh