Samuel Shinedima
ALBERTUS Cloete (48) and Quinton Pieters (42) have applied for permission to appeal their 2012 sentence of 53 years for the murder of Keetmanshoop teacher Magda Maas in her home 16 years ago.
On November 3, 2007, Maas’s partially naked body was discovered at her home. She died as a result of head injuries and strangulation.
However, during their brief court appearance on Monday morning, the two convicted murderers were unable to proceed with the application due to a lack of legal representation. They have requested a postponement to allow them to apply for legal aid.
Despite disputing the allegations against them in Maas’s murder, expert testimony during their trial in 2011 confirmed that human DNA recovered from Maas’s body matched the DNA of one of the two men, which led to their conviction.
In 2015, three years into their effective prison term of 53 years for the charges of murder, rape, and robbery with aggravating circumstances, Pieters was once again found guilty. He faced an additional four counts of rape, one charge of attempted rape, and counts of theft and assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, resulting in an effective sentence of 110 years’ imprisonment.
Pieters now holds the record for the longest jail term, surpassing the previous record of 105 years served by farm massacre prisoner Sylvester Beukes, who was sentenced in November 2011.
During Pieters’ trial, he claimed that there were individuals who could use witchcraft or magic to assume the appearance of someone else and commit crimes. He also asserted that there were other people in Namibia who resembled him.
Judge Shivute sentenced Pieters to three 45-year jail terms for rape, with ten years of each sentence suspended for five years. Additionally, he received a five-year prison term for attempted rape and a two-year prison term for assault with intent to cause serious bodily harm, resulting in a total of 110 years in prison.
The court considered Pieters’ extensive criminal record, which included convictions for crimes such as malicious property damage, theft, housebreaking, robbery with aggravating circumstances, rape, and murder.
