Claim over Stoffels murder arrest fails

THE government has fended off the bulk of a N$2,7 million civil claim against it by the man formerly accused of having raped and murdered 17-year-old schoolgirl Magdalena Stoffels in Windhoek six years ago.

Two of the three damages claims that former rape and murder accused Junias Fillipus lodged against the government after charges against him were withdrawn in May 2011 have now fallen by the wayside, after a ruling in which a special plea by the government against those claims were upheld in the Windhoek High Court on Thursday last week.

In the two claims, Fillipus sued government for N$200 000 for alleged unlawful arrest, and for N$2 million for alleged wrongful detention.

In a third claim, which remains standing after the ruling, Fillipus is also suing the government for N$500 000 for alleged malicious prosecution.

Acting judge Kobus Miller upheld the government’s special plea on the unlawful arrest and wrongful detention claims after finding that those claims were lodged late in terms of the Police Act, which requires that a civil claim against the police should be lodged within a year after a cause of action arose.

Fillipus was arrested on 27 July 2010, and detained for close to 10 months until charges against him were withdrawn in May 2011. The case in which he sued the government for a total of N$2,7 million was instituted in May 2013 – well outside the one-year time limit set by the Police Act.

Acting judge Miller recounted in his judgement that according to Fillipus, he was prevented from suing the government within the prescribed time limit because he was taken to his home in northern Namibia after the charges were withdrawn. However, Fillipus conceded that he had the telephone number of his lawyer, and was able to make telephonic contact with him in the time before the case was filed at the court.

He was not convinced that Fillipus had been prevented from complying with the time limit set in the Police Act, acting judge Miller indicated.

The claim based on an allegation that he had been maliciously prosecuted is in a different category, since a prosecution – whether malicious or not – is instituted by the prosecutor general, and not by the Namibian Police, the judge reasoned further, finding that in respect of that claim, Fillipus did not need to comply with the Police Act.

Fillipus was claiming that the police had no reasonable grounds or suspicion on which they could base his arrest on the day on which Stoffels had been found fatally injured in a riverbed near Windhoek’s Dawid Bezuidenhout High School, where she was a learner.

Stoffels is suspected to have been raped after she was attacked while walking home from school.

Fillipus was arrested after he was found washing clothing in the same river where Stoffels had been attacked. He was arrested a few hundred metres from the spot where she had been found.

The charges against Fillipus were withdrawn on instructions from the prosecutor general after it was discovered that crucial forensic evidence in the case did not link him to the alleged rape and murder of Stoffels. The crime remains unsolved to date.

Following the ruling on the special plea, Fillipus’ case against the government was postponed to 8 September for a status hearing to take place.

Fillipus is being represented by Titus Ipumbu. Senior counsel Gerson Hinda, instructed by the government attorney’s office, is representing the government.