WINDHOEK – The appeal by a fugitive to have his 24-month sentence overturned on appeal failed.
Martin Shetekela, 31, was sentented to two years in prison early this year after he was convicted for unlawful escape from police custody.
He managed to evade the police for more than four years and was eventually arrested and the court slapped him with a 24 month sentence. On August 15, 2014 he made an appeal against the sentence and the High Court on August 28, 2014 dismissed his appeal.
He was arrested on a charge of fraud in 2010 and that is when he managed to escape from the police station during an altercation between a police officer and a fellow trial-awaiting prisoner and was on the run for four solid years before the long arm of the law brought his freedom to a halt early this year when he was re-arrested.
He was convicted of escape from lawful custody and sentenced to 24 months imprisonment.
He appealed only against the sentence and claimed that the sentence is so severe that it induces a sense of shock. Shetekela claimed the trial magistrate did not take all his personal circumstances into account when she imposed the sentence. According to the record of the proceedings in the magistrate court, Shetekela was 31 years old and the father of two minor children. He takes care of one of the children while the other stays with his parents and he lives with his girlfriend in Windhoek, while he is renting another place in Swakopmund.
He is a painter and earns approximately N$3 700. According to Judge Elton Hoff in concurrence with Justice Alfred Siboleka an appeal court may only interfere with a sentence imposed by a trial court if it is satisfied that the trial court misdirected itself or committed a material irregularity during the sentence proceedings.
Judge Hoff said in his view there is no such evidence from the record and that the sentence imposed is appropriate.
He said in his view the trial magistrate correctly took into account a, triad of factors namely the personal circumstances of the accused, the seriousness of the crime and the interest of society.
According to Judge Hoff, one factor that the trial magistrate had to consider was the fact that Shetekela managed to evade arrest for four years and that his arrest was in no part by himself.
“The magistrate in my view correctly stated that it is normally cumbersome to trace an accused once he has escaped” the judge said and further noted, “I must add that the state in such instances normally puts in great expense in order to effect the re-arrest of an accused person.”