WINDHOEK – The Windhoek Regional Court yesterday sentenced a 33-year- old man who killed out of rage for apparently having been insulted to serve 18 years in jail.
Magistrate Surita Savage convicted Arlundo Oubasen Saal, on a charge of murder with direct intent for the death of Samuel Reinholdt Tseitsieb.
Tseitsieb died from excessive blood loss after he was stabbed in the neck with a knife on 26 November 2017.
Handing down the sentence, Savage said a strong message need to be sent out to the public in order to deter would be offenders of similar offenses.
According to State witnesses who took the stand during the trial, Saal threatened to kill Tseitsieb on several occasions and kept his promise when he inflicted a stab wound that resulted in his death on the date in question.
“The only reasonable inference is therefore that the accused had a subjective intention to kill the deceased,” said the magistrate.
State witness Sarah Tseitsies testified that his brother Tseitsieb was at home sleeping in his bedroom. She further testified that Saal went into Tseitsieb’s room and came out with blood on his hands.
It is her testimony that Saal was holding a bloody knife covered with sellotape while at the same time rubbing blood from his hands, clothes and shoes. Tseitsies claims that she immediately rushed to Tseitsieb’s room, only to find him lying on the floor in a pool of blood.
According to her, there was no argument between the two men.
However, a second State witness Hage Gowaseb testified that Tseitsieb made embarrassing statements against Saal which caused Saal’s anger.
He testified that Tseitsieb told Saal that the reason he cannot have a girlfriend is because he only has one eye. Such a statement angered Saal to an extend that he threatened to kill Tseitsieb on several occasions.
During the trial, although admitting that he stabbed Tseitsieb, Saal testified that he was acting in self-defence. He testified that Tseitsieb attacked him and he had no choice but to defend himself. He denied that he went to Tseitsieb’s residence with intent to kill him on the fateful day.
Saal was represented by local defence attorney Titus Ipumbu with Fillemon Nyau prosecuting for the State.