Roland Routh
Windhoek-The trial of the two men accused of raping and killing an 18-year-old girl in Windhoek during the Easter Weekend in 2013 is scheduled to start tomorrow in the Windhoek High Court before Acting Judge Boas Usiku.
The trial was originally set down to start yesterday and continue until March 10 next year, but the withdrawal of Christian Nambahu as the State-funded legal representative for Fransicus Dimitri Narimab, 33, and the recent appointment of Mbanga Siyomunji threw a spanner in the works.
Siyomunji explained to Judge Usiku that he is already engaged in another matter in the regional court and will only be available as from tomorrow.
He applied to the judge to remand the matter to then. State Advocate Ethel Ndlovu and the legal representative of Narimab’s co-accused, Ruben Fritz, 25, Ray Silungwe from the Khadila Amoomo law firm had no objection to the postponement and Judge Usiku granted it.
Narimab and Fritz face one count of murder, two counts of rape, one count of robbery with aggravating circumstances and one count of defeating or obstructing the course of justice.
It is alleged they took turns to rape Alwina Uri-Khos during the period March 28 to 29 in 2013, while the other held her down after taking her to a bushy area between Shandumbula and the Western Bypass tar road in Windhoek. It is further alleged both accused killed the deceased by hitting her with stones on her head and she died at the scene of severe head injuries due to blunt force impact trauma. The accused then allegedly robbed Uri-Khos of her cellphone, SIM card, one pair of shoes and trousers. It is further alleged they destroyed the SIM card and sold the cellular phone and instructed the mother of Fritz to give false information to the police. It is further alleged they disposed of the shoes and trousers of the deceased in a manner unknown to the police.
According to the indictment the deceased was in the company of the accused and they were socialising at various shebeens in the Shandumbula area. During the early hours of March 29 they took the deceased to the area she was found.
Both Narimab and Fritz indicated they would plead not guilty to the charges when they tendered a plea in the Katutura Magistrate’s Court on a Section 119 Plea which is for the Prosecutor General to decide on what charges and in which court they would be tried.