Aletta Shikololo

ONGWEDIVA – A resident of Oshilulu village, who was accused of killing his ex-girlfriend’s mother five years ago, has been found not guilty at the end of his trial in the Oshakati High Court. After a long trial, Andreas Frans Iiyambo was acquitted on charges of murder, robbery, and assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm murder when Judge Johanna Salionga ruled that the prosecution failed to prove its case against him beyond reasonable doubt.

Iiyambo pleaded not guilty to both charges at the start of his trial in October 2020.  He was arrested on 18 January 2018 over the death of Alina Jati Ekandjo. According to court documents, Ekandjo was sitting under a tree near her house when Iiyambo approached her, grabbed and pulled her into the bushes, and killed her. 

Ekandjo’s body was found in the bush. The judgment also suggests that prior to her death, Ekandjo was wearing her bundle of keys tied on her traditional beads around her waist.

 The bundle of keys was not found on her body; however, after Iiyambo was arrested and taken to Okahao police station, he was found in possession of the key allegedly belonging to the victim, which is the subject matter of count two of the indictment. 

The prosecution did not have any direct evidence against the accused that indicated that he had robbed and murdered Ekandjo, Judge Salionga noted in her judgment.

“The evidence is not clear on whether the accused committed offences and the credibility and material discrepancies constituting doubt, where there is doubt on the guilt of an accused, benefit of the doubt to be given to accused,” judged Salionga. Instead, the prosecution’s case against him consisted of circumstantial evidence from which inferences had to be drawn.

Hosea Uuyage, who was an eight-year-old then, a grandchild of the victim and a child of Aune Shapaka (Iiyambo’s ex-girlfriend), testified that when he came home from school, he saw his grandmother under a Mopani tree with Julia, his younger sister.

Uuyage claimed to have witnessed/observed unknown people going into the bushes. He also claimed to have seen the accused and Shapaka (his mother and second state witness) tying up the victim from a mopane tree near the house where he was sitting. He further testified that he saw Iiyambo and Shapaka killing the victim.

The court ruled that Uuyage, being a single witness and a minor, his evidence was not corroborated by any of the other state witnesses who arrived first at the place where the victim disappeared from.

“It appears to me as if this witness testified to something he was either told or heard after the events and not definitely something he witnessed. I thus reject his evidence as unreliable, improbable, and not reasonably possibly true,” Salionga judged.

Based on the merits and demerits of the state and the defence witnesses’ evidence as well as the probabilities of the case, the court finds that the evidence against Iiyambo is not strong enough to sustain convictions.

The State was represented by Likius Matota while the accused was represented by Marcia Amupolo of the Jacobs Amupolo Lawyers and Conveyances.

- ashikololo@nepc.com.na