WINDHOEK – One of two people convicted of raping and violently robbing an elderly couple in Uis in 2010 was sentenced to 57 years in prison in the Windhoek High Court yesterday.
Judge Alfred Siboleka sentenced first-time offender Charles Namiseb, 36, to serve 15 years on each of the three counts of rape and 12 years on a charge of robbery with aggravating circumstance.
The two counts of assault with intent to do bodily harm are taken together for the purpose of sentence with six years imprisonment.
The sentence imposed on two counts of assault will run concurrently with the sentence of robbery, totaling 57 years for Namiseb to serve in prison.
Handing down the judgement, Siboleka explained that Namiseb’s actions on the date in question were driven by mere greed as he was a businessman who owned a plumbing business and was the mastermind behind the violent attack.
Siboleka noted that Namiseb’s sentence should be stiffer than that of his co-accused Edwin Tourob, 34, who was sentenced to an effective of 53 years imprisonment in May 2016. All charges that Namiseb got convicted on stem from the attack that occurred on October 3, 2010 in the Uis settlement of Erongo Region.
Namiseb and Tourob attacked a 72-year-old man and his 69-year-old wife. The couple were seriously injured when the two men attacked them with a spade and tied them in their home.
The woman was raped three times and she sustained serious body injuries. After the gruesome attack on the couple, the pair robbed it of its two firearms, jewelry, money and car, all valued at N$78 900.
Having been in lawful custody for six years, Namiseb escaped from Windhoek police station holding cells in March 2016, but he was re-arrested in South Africa in May 2017.
He was extradited to Namibia in July 2017.
Namiseb was represented by legal counsel Jan Wessels, with Advocate Innocentia Nyoni representing the state.