Swakop rape suspect acquitted

A SWAKOPMUND resident who was accused of kidnapping and raping a young woman at the coastal town three years ago left the High Court in Windhoek a free man after he was acquitted on both charges yesterday.

As a witness, Isak Khei-seb (43) did not impress Judge Louis Muller when he testified in his own defence in his trial in the High Court, Judge Muller commented when he delivered his judgement in Kheiseb’s case yesterday. The problem for the prosecution in Kheiseb’s trial, though, was that the Judge was also not sufficiently convinced by the testimony of a complainant who, in his view, gave evidence that was troubled by several discrepancies.In the end, Judge Muller found that although he had suspicions about Kheiseb’s behaviour during the night that he was alleged to have kidnapped and raped the complainant in his case, those suspicions were not sufficient to base a conviction on. He said when he considered the evidence of the complainant, who was a single witness in many respects, with all the discrepancies in her testimony, he could not find that she had been a credible witness whose evidence he could rely on to convict Kheiseb.Kheiseb was accused of kidnapping an 18-year-old woman who was working as a waitress at a Swakop-mund restaurant on the evening of April 18 2006. The prosecution alleged that she was on her way home from her working place when she asked Khei-seb, who was driving past, to take her home, as she was under the impression that he was driving a taxi. It was alleged that Kheiseb indicated to her that he was indeed driving a taxi.He drove off with her, but instead of taking the road to Swakopmund’s Tamariskia area, where she lived, he drove to a rubbish dump site further out of town, where he eventually raped her, it was alleged.Kheiseb denied the allegations.In his judgement, Judge Muller said he had grave doubts about some of the things that Kheiseb did when he, according to his own version, agreed to transport the complainant to her home.Kheiseb told the court that he picked her up after 05h30 on the morning of April 18 2006. He claimed she unexpectedly jumped out of his car while he was driving past the refuse dump – a route that he said he took because of road construction on other routes in the town – at about 07h15.Kheiseb said when she suddenly screamed and jumped out of the car, he was astonished and thought she might be having an epileptic fit. Despite this, he drove off, leaving her behind at the dumpsite, the Judge noted.The complainant claimed that she was kidnapped late during the evening of April 18 2006. She claimed she was held captive for some nine hours as Kheiseb drove around with her, that she twice jumped out of the car, on the one occasion trying to run away until Kheiseb caught up with her and kicked and beat her, and that she finally escaped from him as he drove past the refuse dump. By then, she claimed, he had raped her.To the first people that she met at the rubbish dump after she jumped out of Kheiseb’s car she however said that Kheiseb had tried to rape her, Judge Muller recounted.’There is simply no other evidence than her own evidence of what happened during the more than 9 hours. In this regard she is a single witness and the court has to approach her evidence with caution,’ the Judge stated.He also noted that a medical doctor who examined her on the afternoon after the incident told the court that she was calm. This is in stark contrast to a person who had been ‘subjected to such a severe trauma of being kidnapped, assaulted, threatened and raped for a long period’, the Judge commented.According to the complainant, she was beaten and severely kicked the second time that she tried to escape. Injuries that would correspond with such a version of events were not found by the doctor who examined her, though, the Judge said.Judge Muller added that ‘while he had suspicions about the evidence of Kheiseb, ‘suspicions are not enough.’Legal Aid lawyer Duard Kesslau represented Khei-seb during the trial. State advocate Dominic Lisulo prosecuted.