Omaheke man jailed for 22 years for murder

An Omaheke region resident convicted of murder after he carried out a fatal assault on his pregnant girlfriend has been sentenced to 22 years’ imprisonment at the end of his trial in the High Court.

Namibia has experienced widespread outrage about murders committed in domestic settings, judge Dinnah Usiku said during the sentencing of Jacobus Gawaseb (29) in the High Court at Windhoek Correctional Facility on Wednesday.

“Our courts cannot therefore turn a blind eye to such outrage, otherwise they risk encouraging a breakdown of law and order and communities taking the law into their own hands,” Usiku said before she sentenced Gawaseb to a prison term of 22 years on a charge of murder.

Gawaseb was also sentenced to six months’ imprisonment on a charge of malicious damage to property, with that sentence ordered to be served concurrently with the sentence on the murder count.