Court overturns Bots-Nam �refugee abduction� deal
Tefo Pheage | Thursday August 25, 2016 15:08
Boster Samuele was one of eight applicants who, in their treason case in the Namibian courts, argued at the Supreme Court that he had been kidnapped by the Namibian military from Botswana to stand trial in Windhoek.
The applicants are among the last defendants in the long-running treason trial stemming from an attempt at cessation by Caprivi Strip militants between 1998 and 1999. Namibian soldiers squashed the revolt, leading hundreds to flee to asylum in Botswana where today they number more than 1,000 at Dukwi Refugee Camp. Samuele and his co-accused were accused of high treason, sedition, public violence and the illegal importation of weapons and ammunition related to the Caprivi Strip conflict.
However, the group questioned the Namibian court’s jurisdiction over them, saying they had been “abducted” in Botswana.
Delivering their ruling this week, five Namibian Supreme court judges upheld Samuele’s arguments that the Namibian High Court had no jurisdiction to try him. Arguments by his co-accused were dismissed.
According to Namibian media, the judges ordered a permanent stay of prosecution against him, which will have the effect that Samuele may not be prosecuted again on any of the charges on which he was indicted in the present prosecution.
Deputy Chief Justice and Judge President, Petrus Damaseb Damaseb said it was abundantly clear from the evidence that Samuele, together with other persons not involved in the appeal, was taken into custody by the Namibian police on Botswana territory.
“Namibian agents transported them to Namibia,” he stated. He dismissed the police’s arguments in the matter saying it was clear from the evidence that Samuele was under the coercive power of Namibian agents.
That, he said, was sufficient to constitute the performance by Namibian authorities in Botswana of a sovereign act of arrest in violation of international law.
“It is idle to suggest under those circumstances that the seventh appellant (Samuele) was not under arrest by agents of Namibia on the territory of Botswana. That arrest amounts to the exercise of a sovereign act by Namibia in the territory of Botswana and it matters not that it was sanctioned by the Botswana authorities,” the judge stated.
He went on to say: “We are satisfied that the High Court misdirected itself in holding that the Namibian authorities did not act unlawfully in removing the seventh appellant from Botswana and placing him within the jurisdiction of the courts of Namibia.”
However, Damaseb found that Samuele’s co-accused had been handed over to Namibia on Namibian soil, by Botswana, where they surrendered.