WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2010-02-25 Time: 03:00:13 Posted By: News Poster
By Werner Menges
THE young man accused of murdering Walvis Bay restaurant owner and former newspaper editor Awie Brand in June 2008 claimed in the High Court in Windhoek yesterday that Brand’s death was the result of a killing in self-defence.
“I hit the deceased two or three times with a wooden object on the head and also pushed him away from me at some stage whereafter he fell,” murder suspect Ephraim Kariko (23) stated in a plea explanation that was submitted to Acting Judge Alfred Siboleka after Kariko had pleaded not guilty to the three charges on which he went on trial yesterday.
While he pleaded not guilty to counts of murder, robbery with aggravating circumstances and defeating or obstructing the course of justice, or attempting to do so, Kariko admitted that he was at the scene when Brand (58) was fatally injured on the evening of June 20 2008. He also admitted that Brand died at the premises of ‘Die Restaurant’, a restaurant that Brand was running at Walvis Bay, and that he removed Brand’s body from the restaurant and placed it in a storeroom at the same premises.
Kariko denied that he wrongfully and intentionally killed Brand. He claimed that he “merely defended myself from an unlawful attack perpetrated on me” by Brand.
He also denied that he robbed Brand, disputing that he assaulted Brand with the intention of stealing from him. He however admitted that he stole a Hyundai motor vehicle, an ignition key, a cell phone, and N$800 in cash from Brand on the evening of Brand’s death.
He was in “a serious state of shock” at the time, and he decided to steal the car, keys, phone and money after Brand was injured very seriously and he decided to flee to Windhoek to get help from his family and get their advice on what should be done about the incident, Kariko claimed.
“I placed the body of the deceased in the storeroom for reasons I cannot explain,” he stated. “I was highly confused, in a state of shock and to say the least hysterical.”
Kariko further admitted that after fleeing to Windhoek with Brand’s car, he asked someone to hide his clothes, which were covered in blood, and to wash his shoes, which also had blood on them.
Walvis Bay Police Sergeant Marinda Bekker, who was one of the first Police officers to arrive at Brand’s restaurant on the morning of June 21 2008, testified yesterday that a bloody drag mark leading from the restaurant to an outside storeroom was found at the scene. The door of the storeroom was locked with a padlock, and when this lock was broken open, Brand’s partly naked body was found lying inside.
In the restaurant, a pair of trousers was found lying on a couch. A wooden club or short knobkierie was also found lying inside the restaurant, where a bloody scene was found in the area around the couch.
Brand’s daughter, Jeanine Brand, told the court that she became worried when she realised that her father had not returned from the restaurant at about 01h00. She tried to phone him at the restaurant and on his cell phone, but the calls went unanswered. She and her mother, Myrna Brand, then drove to the restaurant, but the lights there were switched off, Brand’s car was not parked outside, and everything seemed to be in order, she testified.
She said she then started sending SMSes to her father’s phone to ask him where he was and what was going on. The replies she received only made her more worried, she said.
In a first reply, the person who sent her the message said he was in Swakopmund. He used the abbreviation “swk” – something that her father would not have done, she said.
In another message, after she had sent a follow-up message to her father’s phone to ask what was wrong, the person replied that he would tell her later. A spelling mistake in that message further raised her suspicions, she said.
Brand had been a reporter and later editor with the coastal newspaper, Namib Times, for over 30 years before he opened his restaurant.
Brand’s brother-in-law, Herman Sanderson, told the court that some time after the incident he found a letter that Kariko had written to Brand among documents from the restaurant that he was storing at his house. In the letter, dated in October 2006, Kariko apologised profusely for having stolen money from a bank account of Brand, and claimed that Brand had been the best employer he ever had.
The trial is continuing today.
Defence lawyer Jan Wessels is representing Kariko, who is free on bail of N$10 000. State advocate Ethel Ndlovu is prosecuting.
Original Source: 
Original date published: 24 February 2010
Source: http://allafrica.com/stories/201002240620.html?viewall=1