Special plea in high treason trial fails

WINDHOEK, 10 APR – An attempt of a special plea in which seven men challenged the jurisdiction of Namibia’s High Court to try them on charges of high treason, has failed.
The special plea brought before court by the men in terms of Section 106 of the Criminal Procedures Act of 1977, was rejected in a ruling handed down by Acting High Court Judge Petrus Unengu here on Tuesday.
As per the ruling, the Namibian High Court has full territorial jurisdiction to try the seven men on the charges of high treason and other related charges they are facing.
The court ruled that the Office of the Prosecutor-General has the right to prosecute the accused on the charges against them.
Furthermore, the court finds the accused are all Namibian citizens born in the Zambezi Region (former Caprivi Region) and freely took part in several elections during the then colonial South African administration and at the time of the United Nations’ supervised general elections in 1989.
In addition, documentary evidence presented before court also showed they all had applied for Namibian citizenship documents and are just pretending not to be Namibian nationals for reasons only known to themselves.
The failed special plea was based on a legal point in which the group claimed they are Caprivians and not Namibians and for this reason, Namibia’s High Court has no legal power to try them for high treason.
The charges against the seven men stem from their alleged involvement in a failed attempt to secede the then Caprivi from the rest of Namibia on 02 August 1999.
They are Progress Munuma, Manuel Makendano, Shine Samulandela, Alex Mushakwa, Diamond Salufu, Hoster Ntombo and John Ntambwe.
On 22 August 2016, the group suffered a legal blow when the Supreme Court dismissed their applications in which they appealed the dismissal of their first joint application, challenging the Windhoek High Court’s jurisdiction to try them on high treason.
Their appeal applications were dismissed by Deputy Chief Justice Petrus Damaseb with Chief Justice Peter Shivute, Judges of Appeal Fred Chomba and Dave Smuts, as well as Acting Judge of Appeal Yvonne Mokgoro concurring with the ruling.
However, an appeal application by appellant Boster Mubuyaeta Samuele was successful at the time and he was set free in 2016.
The seven remain in police custody at the Windhoek Central Correctional Facility with no option to post bail, pending the start of their high treason trial on 14 May 2018.
NAMPA