Hoff gets suspended sentence
Local businesswoman Susanne Hoff was convicted of attempted murder and given a two-year sentence, suspended wholly for five.
A business Windhoek businesswoman was sentenced on Friday in the Regional Court in Katutura to two years' imprisonment which was conditionally and wholly suspended for five years.
The conditions are that Susanne Hoff, 56, should not be convicted of attempted murder during the period of her suspension.
Magistrate Alexis Diergaardt ordered that Hoff, who is also the owner of an advertising agency, must perform 300 hours of community service at Hope Village in Katutura under the supervision of Kingsto Makani.
The court in last month found that Hoff had tried to hire killers to murder her husband, Khomas Hochland farmer Egbert Hoff, in November 2011 and consequently convicted her of attempted murder and discharged her on the initial charge of conspiracy.
She was arrested on 30 November 2011, in a police trap when she handed over money to the two supposed hitmen and was held in custody for more than four months until April 2012, when she successfully appealed to the High Court for bail.
The magistrate found that the alleged hired killers testified that they never actually intended to go through with the murder. They said they only pretended to agree to carry out the killing and alerted the police who set a trap for her.
Her version that she asked two men to pose as horse buyers interested in purchasing a horse from her husband, as she suspected that he was selling horses belonging to her and pocketing the proceeds, was found to be false and improbable.
Diergaardt said in her judgment that the law is clear that there could not be a conspiracy if one of the parties to such a plot only pretended to agree to commit a crime, without actually carrying out a criminal plan. “When there was no agreement of minds, there was no true agreement amounting to a conspiracy,” the magistrate said.
According to her Hoff had intention to have her husband murdered. Since the crime was not committed, though, she was guilty of attempted murder.
FRED GOEIEMAN
The conditions are that Susanne Hoff, 56, should not be convicted of attempted murder during the period of her suspension.
Magistrate Alexis Diergaardt ordered that Hoff, who is also the owner of an advertising agency, must perform 300 hours of community service at Hope Village in Katutura under the supervision of Kingsto Makani.
The court in last month found that Hoff had tried to hire killers to murder her husband, Khomas Hochland farmer Egbert Hoff, in November 2011 and consequently convicted her of attempted murder and discharged her on the initial charge of conspiracy.
She was arrested on 30 November 2011, in a police trap when she handed over money to the two supposed hitmen and was held in custody for more than four months until April 2012, when she successfully appealed to the High Court for bail.
The magistrate found that the alleged hired killers testified that they never actually intended to go through with the murder. They said they only pretended to agree to carry out the killing and alerted the police who set a trap for her.
Her version that she asked two men to pose as horse buyers interested in purchasing a horse from her husband, as she suspected that he was selling horses belonging to her and pocketing the proceeds, was found to be false and improbable.
Diergaardt said in her judgment that the law is clear that there could not be a conspiracy if one of the parties to such a plot only pretended to agree to commit a crime, without actually carrying out a criminal plan. “When there was no agreement of minds, there was no true agreement amounting to a conspiracy,” the magistrate said.
According to her Hoff had intention to have her husband murdered. Since the crime was not committed, though, she was guilty of attempted murder.
FRED GOEIEMAN
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