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Namibia: Day of Judgement Looms for Beating Suspects
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The Namibian (Windhoek)
25 April 2008
Posted to the web 25 April 2008
Werner Menges
Windhoek
THE two people accused of beating a 10-year-old boy to death in the Oshakati area in November 2004 are set to hear the verdict in their High Court trial on Wednesday.
Defence and prosecution lawyers in the murder trial of Kaarina Josef and Gideon David agreed on at least one thing yesterday when they addressed Acting Judge John Manyarara.
That is that Michael Olugodhi (10) died at Omaalala, a village in the Oshakati district, on November 7 2004, and that he had been beaten to death.
However, with Josef and David accusing each other of carrying out the deadly beating, one crucial question remains, Acting Judge Manyarara said as he started hearing arguments from the lawyers: "Who done it?" Olugodhi was Josef's grandson whom she had raised from his birth, the court has heard.
When she testified in the trial on Wednesday, Josef strenuously denied having beaten the boy on the day of the incident.
She claimed, though, that David had been involved in a fight with Olugodhi, and that he must have been responsible for the fatal beating.
According to a medical doctor who performed a post-mortem examination on Olugodhi, his entire body was covered with abrasions and bruises.
The doctor, Yury Vasin, counted more than 140 such injuries on the boy's body.
David told the court yesterday that when he arrived at Josef's home on the morning of November 7 2004 - he said he thought he had been summoned to help carry out repairs to her house - he found Olugodhi tied to a tree.
The boy, whom he knew as a neighbour, was already dead, he said.
David said he untied Olugodhi and carried his body to a shady spot in Josef's homestead, where he lay him down.
He then returned to his own home, continued with his daily tasks, and did not tell anyone about having discovered his young neighbour dead, he said.
He did not report this discovery because it was none of his business, he claimed.
State advocate Sandra Miller asked Acting Judge Manyarara to convict both accused persons of murder.
While Josef was not a satisfactory witness, she said, David's evidence was so poor that it was "pathetic".
According to Josef herself, she provided David with three tree branches to use in the beating of Olugodhi, meaning that she in fact facilitated the assault on the boy, Miller argued.
Josef was aware of the assault, as she at stages testified that she heard Olugodhi screaming and that this assault lasted longer than an hour, but she did nothing to help the boy, Miller also argued.
If one looks at the probabilities of the situation, it would have had to take more than just an elderly woman like Josef - although she has told the court that she does not know her age, she is around 64 years old, according to the State and her defence lawyer - to get hold of Olugodhi, restrain him by tying him up and then assault him to the extent that he was beaten, Miller argued further.
If David had nothing to do with the boy's death, one would have expected him to report that he had found Olugodhi dead, she added, commenting that David's claim that he did not do this because it was not his business was simply ridiculous.
Josef's defence counsel, Marlene Dammert, agreed with Miller that David's evidence was unacceptable.
She reminded the court that David had previously stated that he was at the scene during the assault, which he claimed had been carried out by Josef.
He was still trying to exaggerate Josef's role in the incident, Dammert commented.
If Josef's version of events was accepted, it would to a large extent be the only version before the court, Dammert said.
She argued that the prosecution had failed to prove that Josef had any intention to kill the boy.
Josef's aim was to have Olugodhi disciplined - for having taken four dried fish from his grandmother's house on the day before the beating, the court has heard - and at best for the prosecution, Josef can be convicted of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm for the assistance she said she gave to David, Dammert argued.
But according to David's defence lawyer, Zagrys Grobler, Josef's version of the events, where she said she did not actually see the hour-long assault taking place, is "completely improbable".
Grobler argued that Josef had made up a story to implicate David and get herself off the hook.
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He asked the court to find David not guilty.
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