American jailed for murder, fraud

Former US marine Karl Kama Rashid (58) has been jailed for 35 years for strangling to death an unknown man, putting his body in a car and setting it alight, to fake his own death before defrauding Outsurance and FNB of R0.5m. A Daily Dispatch report says Eastern Cape High Court (Mthatha) Acting Judge Noluthando Ndzondo sentenced Rashid to 20 years for murder, and to a total of 15 years for the three fraud counts (five years for each). She ordered that the sentences run concurrently with the 20-year murder sentence. The crimes were committed by Rashid in September 2011 in Sterkspruit. He had relocated to SA and married a former SANDF Air Force member – Antoinette Noluthando Rashid (37). The state initially charged the couple, but abandoned the case against her when it transpired that there was insufficient evidence to prove she had been aware that her husband had faked his death. Rashid took out a rash of insurance policies, insuring his life, assets and funeral cover. He then plotted to fake his own death. The incident occurred in September 2011 when an unknown man was murdered by Rashid, who placed the victim’s body in the driver’s seat, doused the corpse and car with fuel and set it alight. Rashid then disappeared from his home in Sterkspruit.