Convicted rapist pleads for clemency
Convicted rapist Maleagi Somaëb (46), who is serving a 30-year jail sentence, has applied to the High Court to secure his release on parole from the Hardap Correctional Facility.
Somaëb approached the court in February on an urgent basis and asked that the court order his release within 14 days because the date on which he was eligible for parole had already passed.
According to a profile document of the correctional facility, Somaëb was eligible for parole on 17 October 2017. Should he serve the entire 30-year sentence, he will only be up for release on 17 October 2032, at the age of 60.
Somaëb, who was convicted on three counts of rape in 2002, has already spent 16 years behind bars, which his legal representative Titus Mbaeva of Mbaeva & Associates said meant that Somaëb is classified as a class A inmate and a worthy candidate for consideration for release on parole.
In his founding affidavit, Somaëb said he had filed for parole in March last year but this application was opposed by prison commissioner General Raphael Hamuyela and the National Release Board.
He said he was interviewed by the release board in July 2017, which sent a report to the Ministry of Safety and Security for a final decision.
His legal representative had also during July last year written a letter to the Hardap Correctional Facility, but Somaëb said he has since then been waiting for a response, claiming that his incarceration is therefore illegal.
Somaëb also claimed that he is being detained for “unfair rape”, maintaining that he was wrongfully convicted because he and the complainant had a “normal agreement” in connection with “food, money and toiletries”. She was 15 at the time of the rape.
“For a person to serve 15 years in a Namibian prison is not easy and at this stage and time applicant and his family (elderly mother) needs some assistance of the authority,” Somaëb states in his founding affidavit.
This case is postponed until 19 September for a status hearing.
Catherine Sasman
Somaëb approached the court in February on an urgent basis and asked that the court order his release within 14 days because the date on which he was eligible for parole had already passed.
According to a profile document of the correctional facility, Somaëb was eligible for parole on 17 October 2017. Should he serve the entire 30-year sentence, he will only be up for release on 17 October 2032, at the age of 60.
Somaëb, who was convicted on three counts of rape in 2002, has already spent 16 years behind bars, which his legal representative Titus Mbaeva of Mbaeva & Associates said meant that Somaëb is classified as a class A inmate and a worthy candidate for consideration for release on parole.
In his founding affidavit, Somaëb said he had filed for parole in March last year but this application was opposed by prison commissioner General Raphael Hamuyela and the National Release Board.
He said he was interviewed by the release board in July 2017, which sent a report to the Ministry of Safety and Security for a final decision.
His legal representative had also during July last year written a letter to the Hardap Correctional Facility, but Somaëb said he has since then been waiting for a response, claiming that his incarceration is therefore illegal.
Somaëb also claimed that he is being detained for “unfair rape”, maintaining that he was wrongfully convicted because he and the complainant had a “normal agreement” in connection with “food, money and toiletries”. She was 15 at the time of the rape.
“For a person to serve 15 years in a Namibian prison is not easy and at this stage and time applicant and his family (elderly mother) needs some assistance of the authority,” Somaëb states in his founding affidavit.
This case is postponed until 19 September for a status hearing.
Catherine Sasman
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