[1] This enabled him to be educated and to work permanently in the Police Zone where blacks from the "reserves" were otherwise only allowed as migrant labourers with temporary residence permits.
He was educated at a Rhenish Mission School in Tsumeb and the Augustineum Training College in Okahandja, where he obtained a teaching certificate.
As one of the few accused who were fluent in English and Afrikaans, he was instrumental in preparing the defence together with their lawyer, Joel Carlson.
However, no direct involvement of Ya-Otto in the military liberation struggle could be proven, and he received a suspended 5-year sentence under the Suppression of Communism Act[4] and was released.
In 1981, he published his only book Battlefront Namibia, based on extensive interviews by Ole Gjerstad and detailing SWAPO's and his own struggle for independence.