The State is ready to prosecute three men, who are accused of killing an elderly couple farm Lindeshof near Köes in the Keetmanshoop district in 2018.
Julius Frederick Arndt (42), Andries Afrikaner (38) and Johannes Christiaan (38) all made an appearance in the Windhoek High Court yesterday before Judge Christie Liebenberg, where they were informed their case is ready to proceed for trial.
Judge Liebenberg postponed the matter to 20 August for the accused to appear before Judge Dinah Usiku for their trial.
The group has been in police custody after they were arrested in 2018 on two counts of murder, two counts of housebreaking with intent to rob and robbery with aggravating circumstances, and one count of rape alternatively violating a dead body. The prosecution is further charging the group with a count of conspiracy to commit robbery with aggravating circumstances and/or murder and/or rape and housebreaking with intent to steal, and theft.
It is alleged the three broke into the house of the victims during the late-night hours of 1 February 2018 and stole at least N$550 cash, one measuring tape, an electrical plug, a tire gauge and a bulb. After the victims discovered the theft, they arranged for burglar bars to be installed at their residence, but before this could be done, the accused returned the following night and gained entrance by breaking open windows or doors, the indictment read.
During the ransacking of their residence, it is alleged, they came across the elderly couple and murdered Gielam by hitting him with a piece of iron and shooting him in the mouth with a .22 rifle that belonged to him. Thereafter, it is said, they raped the elderly woman or alternatively had intercourse with her dead body after they had stabbed her several times and strangled her with a shoe-lace.
It is alleged that after committing the heinous crimes, they managed to open the garage door and loaded the stolen property onto the motor vehicle of the victims and drove off. According to the State, the accused acted with a common purpose at all material times.
After the gruesome murder was discovered, the police and members of the community launched a massive manhunt and they were arrested within hours of the discovery of the couple’s murder.
The group is represented by local lawyers Titus Mbaeva whilst State Advocate Cliff Lutibezi is prosecuting for the state.
– mamakali@nepc.com.na