A STATEMENT recorded from one of the men accused of murdering an elderly couple in a house robbery at Swakopmund four years ago may be used as evidence in an ongoing trial in the Windhoek High Court, a judge has ruled.
The statement, recorded from Fabian Lazarus (29) on 4 August 2017, was ruled admissible as evidence by judge Christie Liebenberg in a judgement delivered last week.
Liebenberg found that Lazarus had made unsubstantiated allegations that he had been assaulted by police officers to force him into making the statement, and that he had given divergent versions about the making of the statement.
Lazarus’ versions were unconvincing, the judge said, before finding that his evidence was false and should be rejected.
Lazarus and a co-accused, Simon Shidute Jerobeam (27), are facing two counts of murder and four other charges in connection with a robbery during which Swakopmund resident Roswitha Strzelecki (79) was killed in her home on 2 August 2017.
Strzelecki’s husband, Siegfried Strzelecki (81), was assaulted during the robbery. He died on 10 August 2017, after he had suffered a stroke. The state is alleging that his death was caused by the assault on him during the incident in which his wife was killed.
The state is also alleging that Jerobeam, Lazarus and a third man, Daniel Nghilifa Stefanus (30), planned and carried out the robbery. Stefanus, too, was arrested after the incident, but he escaped out of police custody in February 2019 and has remained on the run since then.
Jerobeam and Lazarus denied guilt on all of the charges when their trial commenced in February this year.
A statement which Jerobeam made to a police officer after his arrest was ruled admissible as evidence in the trial in June.
In that statement, made on 3 August 2017, Jerobeam recounted that he and one Daniel had attacked an elderly couple in their home at the coastal town the previous day.
He said Daniel strangled the woman they attacked after she had begun to scream. Daniel had tied her arms before he strangled his victim for two to three minutes, Jerobeam said.
Jerobeam also recounted that he had held the woman by her arms before Daniel tied her up.
After they had overpowered the woman, he went further into the couple’s house and surprised an “old man”, whom he also tied up and gagged, Jerobeam said.
He also said Daniel had told him he had seen “a lot of money at his boss’ house”, and they went to the house to look for that money. However, they left the house when Daniel was not able to open a safe with the key he had, Jerobeam added.
According to Jerobeam, his and Daniel’s hands were bloody after the attack, and they then walked to a beach at the town to wash off the blood in the sea.
The trial is scheduled to continue from 17 February.
Lazarus and Jerobeam, who are being represented by defence lawyers Milton Engelbrecht and Tjingairi Kaurivi, respectively, are both being held in custody.
State advocate Marthino Olivier is prosecuting.
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