Werner Menges
25 November 2008
A Gobabis resident who is accused of murdering his girlfriend in a stabbing incident in September 2005 is claiming that his alleged victim actually died accidentally after she ran into a knife that he had in his hand.
This defense of murder suspect Gerson Uri-Khob emerged in the High Court in Windhoek during the first day of his trial on a charge of murder yesterday.
Uri-Khob (44) is accused of murdering his live-in girlfriend, Justine Doeses (33), at the Freedom Square area of Epako at Gobabis on September 7 2005.
"The plea is one of guilty, with a reason," Uri-Khob said through an interpreter when he was asked to give his plea to the murder charge that he is facing.
After his defence lawyer, Etuna Josua, told the court that his instructions were that Uri-Khob was pleading not guilty, Uri-Khob confirmed that he was in fact denying guilt on the charge.
The prosecution's first witness in the trial, Constable Julius Leswape, told the court that he was at the Gobabis Police Station around 22h30 on September 7 2005 when a crying Uri-Khob entered.
Leswape said he knew Uri-Khob, who he said was also known as "Tarzan", since attending primary school with him.
Leswape said Uri-Khob was carrying a knife wrapped in a piece of paper in his hand as he entered the Police station.
The knife was a weapon that had been fashioned from one of the sharpened blades of a pair of sheep shears, Leswape said.
He testified that Uri-Khob, who was smelling of liquor, told him that he had stabbed his wife with a knife, and he did not know how seriously she had been injured.
Uri-Khob also told him that his wife had been sleeping with another man, Leswape said.
Josua told Leswape that it was Uri-Khob's version that he had said he had injured his wife by accident, and that he asked Leswape to help him get her to a hospital.
Leswape denied this version of events.
Uri-Khob was also denying having said that his wife was sleeping with another man, Josua told Leswape.
Leswape likewise disputed this instruction from the suspect.
Medical doctor Samir Kumar Basu, who carried out a post mortem examination on Doeses's body, testified that she had a stab wound in her chest.
The wound was situated at the left side of her back, and penetrated into her left lung.
It was to Dr Basu that Josua revealed Uri-Khob's version of how Doeses had sustained the fatal injury.
Uri-Khob's instructions were that he was standing in a corrugated metal shack, holding a knife in his hand, when Doeses ran into the shack, Josua said.
As she entered, Uri-Khob had his back turned on her, and when he turned around to face her she was stabbed accidentally, Josua sketched his client's instructions.
Dr Basu answered that looking at the knife in court he had doubt in his mind that with such a scenario Doeses would have sustained such a deep stab wound as the one that killed her.
If someone ran into a knife as claimed, he would also have expected the stab wound to be on the front of her body instead of at the back, the doctor said.
The trial is continuing today.
Deputy Prosecutor General Orben Sibeya is prosecuting.
Uri-Khob is being held in custody.
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