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Murder suspect to go for psychiatrist exam
TOMELETSO SEREETSI
Staff Writer
10/15/2004 2:54:21 AM (GMT +2)
Justice Moses Chinhengo yesterday indefinitely put on hold a case in which Gabaitsewe Abae, a herdsman from Motswawa ward in Thabala is charged with the murder of his wife Lefatshe Kamokwa in 2002. The development came after suspicions that the accused is not of sound mind to put up a defence.
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Chinhengo said Abae has to go for psychiatric examination to ascertain whether he was mentally fit at the time of the offence and even now. He said that there are features evident in the case, which justify the decision to launch an inquiry into the suspect’s state of mind.
He referred to a post mortem report which alluded to abrasions on the body of the deceased as “bizarre”. He said it is unfortunate that the pathologist who performed the autopsy left the country on the first day of the trial, consequently denying the court an explanation of what he meant by the descriptive term “bizarre”.
He found that the suspect’s own confessed conduct on the day of the murder is not normal. On Wednesday, Abae confirmed to the court that after assaulting his wife to the point where she was naked and unable to walk, he returned to their place of residence and brought along his jacket to cover her body. Chinhengo said that it was such conduct that sparks suspicion that Abae was probably of unsound mind then and now.
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