Appeal in German flight instructor’s murder dismissed

WINDHOEK, 18 MAY – An appeal by Rundu resident, Joseph Wasuka Nunda, who was convicted of robbing and murdering a German flight instructor here in 2005, has been dismissed.
Nunda, 37, was on 19 June 2014 sent to jail for 20 years along with Dumingu Zuzee da Costa by High Court Judge Nate Ndauendapo for the death of Ralph Köhnke, 34.
The appeal was dismissed in a ruling handed down by Ndauendapo on Friday morning, who attributed the dismissal to Nunda’s failure to provide the court with credible and acceptable information or reasonable explanations for why his appeal was not lodged within the prescribed 14 days after ruling is delivered.
The appeal was also dismissed on the grounds that there are no prospects of it succeeding in another court based on the evidence provided as Nunda was properly and fairly tried and punished (sentenced) in terms of the existing laws and in respect of the offences he had committed.
In the failed appeal, Nunda wanted the court to reduce his custodial sentence, saying there was some misdirection by the court in judgement and sentencing.
Fellow convict Da Costa was not part of the failed appeal.
Nunda and Da Costa were each imprisoned for 20 years after they were found guilty of murder with direct intention to kill, robbery with aggravating circumstances and defeating or obstructing the course of justice, or alternatively violating a dead human body by setting the remains of Köhnke alight shortly after killing him.
Köhnke’s burned remains were found in the Goreangab Dam area in Katutura on 29 December 2005.
He was struck on the head with a brick or another object and died due to skull fracture.
After Köhnke was killed, Nunda and Da Costa loaded his body into a car, transported it to an area near the dam and set the body on fire in an attempt to destroy evidence.
The two men also stole goods including computer equipment, tools, a safe, two firearms and an unknown amount of money in cash from Köhnke’s house after his death.
Nunda representing himself in the appeal after the Justice Ministry’s Directorate of Legal Aid refused to appoint a government-funded defence lawyer for him.
(NAMPA)