Windhoek High Court Judge Nate Ndauendapo last week postponed the case of a Kunene man, charged with multiple counts of rape and one count of murder, to September this year for judgement. 

Johannes Lukuwa Hausiku is standing trial on 15 charges emanating from three incidents that took place at Outjo during the first half of 2012. 

He has denied guilt on all of the charges. 

He is alleged to have kidnapped and raped a woman at Outjo in Kunene on the night of 30 May 2012. 

He then allegedly murdered the woman’s two-year-old son and hindered police investigations by telling her to report to the police that she had been attacked and her son was killed by four unknown men. 

Hausiku is also alleged to have kidnapped, raped and robbed two other women in January 2012. 

Theo Carollus, who took over the defence of Hausiku after two lawyers withdrew because of conflicting instructions, asked the court to find his client not guilty due to diminished criminal incapacity. 

According to him, the reports of the psychiatrists who observed Hausiku all suggested he was not able to appreciate the wrongfulness of his actions at the time it was commissioned because of mental illness. 

He further contended that Hausiku was in custody during 2012 and it is possible that he was not given his mental medications, which could explain him not remembering details. 

“The evidence by all the mental health practitioners was that the accused person is not of sound mental health without his medication – and that during the time he was in custody from January to May 2012, he had not received any medical attention. This speaks volumes to the allegations of offences he allegedly committed after his release from custody,” Carolus stressed. 

He went on to say his client was used as a scapegoat by an unscrupulous police officer who just wanted to close the case.  

Prosecutor Ethel Ndlovu told the court that during a trial-within-a-trail, held to determine the validity of admissions Hausiku made, the court ruled them admissible as evidence. 

According to her, the accused testified during these proceedings, and was cross-examined – and there was nothing to show that he did not know what he was doing or suffered from impaired memory, or a mental illness at the time of the commissioning of the offences. 

During his mental observation, Hausiku told the psychiatrists that he was angry because his partner (the mother of the murdered child) was reportedly having an affair with another man. 

According to what he said, they both came from Kavango to Outjo as a couple, having two children – one being the victim – and he was aiming to stab his partner but ended up stabbing the boy because she held him as a shield. 

He also claimed he took the victim to the hospital thereafter and had no recollection of a body been cut and thrown away. 

He denied the rape cases and the rest of the allegations.  

Ndlovu submitted that the state proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Hausiku committed the offences he is facing whilst not suffering from a mental defect that could have made him incapable of appreciating the wrongfulness of his actions. 

- rrouth@nepc.com.na