MURDER WITHOUT A BODY

MBABANE – Could the prosecution restore confidence in the Judiciary by getting a successful conviction in the case of kidnapped businessman, Almor Oliveira?

Given that the State, on June 2, added a charge of murder to the two suspects in custody, most people are convinced that it has a solid case and this actually proves that businessman was dead despite that there is no body.

It will be 89 days today since Oliveira went missing since being abducted at his business premises while closing his shop. But some people are sceptical and still believe that Oliveira is still alive, which is why they are looking forward to the trial.

Those doubting that he might still be very much alive have reason to do so given how some years back two people were convicted and sentenced to death, while the sixth accused, Solinye’s biological father, served seven years, with hard labour, for a murder that never was.

Then there was the murder without corpus delicti. This is in instances of murder where there is no trace of a body. In the early nineties, in the case of Rex vs. John Spokes Lawrence Madeleke this was tested and the prosecution was successful in raising its arguments.

Circumstantial

Besides the events which characterised its details, the case brought to the fore the need to re-examine the principles underlying circumstantial evidence.
Madeleke was charged with and subsequently convicted of the murder of his wife, Sheila, on January 17, 1991. The prosecution’s case was that Sheila was dead, murdered by her husband. To establish this proposition, the Crown relied entirely upon circumstantial evidence. And this is a similar position in which the Crown finds itself in the Oliveira case.  

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