Roland Routh
Windhoek-In the absence of evidence to the contrary, and the court having rejected the accused’s explanation as false, the only reasonable conclusion to come to is that murder accused Ivan Hoëbeb unlawfully and intentionally killed Elizabeth Ganses with direct intent.
These were the words of Judge Christi Liebenberg when ruling on the matter on Friday. Hoëbeb was convicted of having strangled Ganses, 26, with his bare hands during October 30 to 31, 2015. He was however acquitted on a charge of rape, as the State could not prove the claim.
“Though evidence in the instant matter about the insertion of an unknown object in the genitalia of the deceased would constitute a sexual act, as per the definition, it does not constitute the offence of rape in that the act was committed after death,” the judge said.
In circumstances such as these, the accused should have been prosecuted (in the alternative) with the offence of violation of a corpse, he advised. With regard to the charge of robbery, Hoëbeb was convicted on the lesser count of theft.
According to the judge, no link was established between the deadly assault on the deceased and the taking of the cellphone and it must therefore be concluded that there is no evidence supporting a finding of robbery with aggravating circumstances.
The conviction of attempting to defeat the course of justice was established by the fact that the accused was the only person who could have gained from destroying the evidence, but since the setting alight of the body did not achieve its primary objective only the attempt was proven and not the main count of defeating the course of justice.
Judge Liebenberg said when he assessed the version of Hoëbeb he found it full of contradictions. During his testimony in mitigation Hoëbeb told the court that he was genuinely remorseful for causing the death of the deceased. According to him, he tried to ask forgiveness from the family of the deceased, but due to his continued incarceration he could not.
He even asked his aunt to call the relatives of the deceased to come and see him, but she was afraid to face them, Hoëbeb said. His State-funded lawyer, Milton Engelbrecht, asked the court to show clemency and to give Hoëbeb a chance to become a productive member of society again.
Deputy Prosecutor General Henry Muhongo, however, asked the court to sentence Hoëbeb to 30 years for the murder, 18 months for the theft and six years on the attempt to defeat justice conviction.
According to Muhongo, the deceased was still in the prime of her life when she was killed in the most brutal manner imaginable. Judge Liebenberg said he would be ready with the sentence at 09h00 on Wednesday, August 16.