Axe murder accused found fit for trial

A YOUNG man accused of having murdered his mother with an axe almost three years ago is fit to stand trial, but was delusional because of the effects of his use of cannabis at the time he allegedly committed the murder, a psychiatrist who examined him has concluded.

As a result of his mental state when he attacked his mother with an axe, Siegfried Uirab’s ability to understand that what he was doing was wrong was reduced, and his ability to act upon that understanding was equally reduced, psychiatrist Reinhardt Sieberhagen stated in a report that he compiled after examining Uirab.

Dr Sieberhagen records in the report that Uirab, who reported having smoked cannabis during the afternoon before the incident in which his mother was attacked, described an experience of having been possessed by a spirit at the time of the incident.

Uirab’s description matched the features typical of cannabis intoxication, the psychiatrist says in his report.

He diagnosed Uirab as having had a cannabis-induced delusional disorder with acute cannabis intoxication and perceptual distortion at the time his alleged crime was committed.

Uirab went on trial in the Windhoek High Court on charges of murder, attempted murder and assault by threat in March this year. He denied guilt on the three charges, but admitted that he assaulted his mother, Erika Uiras (63), with an axe at Otjimbingwe on 21 November 2013, and also hit his sister with the same weapon.

Uiras was struck in the head with an axe. She died in the Katutura Intermediate Hospital in Windhoek two days after the attack. Judge Christie Liebenberg was scheduled to deliver his verdict in Uirab’s trial in April, when he instead directed that Uirab should first go through a second round of psychiatric observation to determine if he is fit to be tried, and if he can be held accountable for his alleged actions.

Dr Sieberhagen’s report is the result of that second round of psychiatric observation.

Uirab had been a patient in the psychiatric unit of the Windhoek Central Hospital for two weeks about two months before the incident, after he had been referred to the unit with a diagnosis of substance-induced psychosis. A state psychiatrist has told the court that during that stay in the psychiatric unit, no signs that Uirab had a mental illness were detected.

When he testified during his trial, Uirab claimed that while the axe with which his mother was hit was in his right hand when she was attacked, a spirit was in control of the axe. He also told the court he did nothing with the axe himself, but the axe was doing everything on its own, that he hid the axe behind a chicken coop after the incident, and that the axe hid itself.

While Uirab denied during his first period of psychiatric observation two years ago that he had been under the influence of any substance at the time of the attack on his mother, he testified during his trial that he had smoked some cannabis on the day of the incident.

In view of that evidence, the possibility could not be excluded that his use of cannabis might have caused him to relapse into the kind of mental condition that prompted his first stint in the mental hospital, judge Liebenberg indicated when he made the order that Uirab’s mental state had to be examined again.

State advocate Felistas Shikerete-Vendura and defence lawyer Titus Ipumbu both indicated to the judge during a brief court appearance by Uirab yesterday that they did not dispute the findings in Dr Sieberhagen’s report.

Having received the report, judge Liebenberg postponed the delivery of his judgement in the trial to 5 October.