Staff Reporter
THE former Minister of Justice and Attorney General, Sackeus Shanghala, dusted off the law books and argued in court on behalf of some of the Fishrot accused. They have brought an urgent application before the High Court, calling upon the officer in charge of the Windhoek Correctional Facility (WCF) to interdict a move by the Namibia Correctional Services (NCS) relocating some of the Fishrot accused from C section of the facility to the Echo Unit.
In his arguments, Shanghala claimed that one of the accused who has been moved to the Echo Unit from the C section of the Correctional Facility, Ricardo Gustavo, has developed a lung infection and has been hospitalised as of 20 May 2024. This, he alleges, is due to exposure to fungal-smelling marijuana, which he claims is mostly being smuggled through the rectum by inmates into the facility. Further to this, he claimed that the Echo Unit was used as a quarantine facility for a measles outbreak and was not disinfected but merely cleaned up.
“What I’m giving you is a microcosm of the conditions of the prison. If I knew these conditions while in my high positions, I would’ve done something. It is not something I would wish on anyone,” Shanghala said.
James Hatuikulipi, Mike Nghipunya, Otneel Shuudifonya, Pius Mwatelulo, and Ricardo Gustavo were relocated from the C Section to the Echo Unit on 1 May 2024.
In the relief sought, the applicants ask that a rule nisi be issued calling upon the respondents, which include the Minister of Safety, the Commissioner General of the Namibia Correctional Services (NCS), and in particular, the Officer-in-Charge of the Windhoek Correctional Facility (WCF), to show cause, if any, why they should not be restrained and interdicted from implementing and/or executing the decision of the NCS to relocate the above mentioned accused from the C-Section Unit of the WCF and placing them in the general population of trial-awaiting detained persons at the Echo Unit or any other unit at the WCF.
In his arguments, Shanghala contended that the Fishrot accused are not fighting to occupy a particular section of the prison, as there is no legal right to do so. However, he added that they are opposing the move as it infringes on their fundamental rights to a fair trial as provided for in the constitution. He added that the C-Section does not have a law library, chairs or tables, or access to computers, and as such inhibits the accused from preparing for trial. He further noted that the accused do not have access to their files and computers, or internet access, as they are locked up from 15:00 to 08:00 in the C-Section. Additionally, he stated that the accused spend about 30 hours a month on the internet, as it only works 59% of the time.
Furthermore, he added that the accused cannot discuss their court case in the communal Echo Section, as they do not know some of the other inmates, some of which have been accused of heinous acts and may be a danger to them.
Slysken Makando, who represented the NCS and other respondents in the matter, argued that the matter be struck off the roll with costs. He contended that the applicants do not have any legal right to be located in a specific section of the Correctional Facility and that the applicants were relocated some 20 days ago, rendering the matter non-urgent.
He further argued that the rights to a fair trial of the applicants have not been infringed, as they are still allowed access to their computers and the internet when they are moved from the Echo Unit to the C Section.
Commissioner General of the NCS Raphael Hamunyela, in his affidavit, indicated that the NCS only has a limited number of single cells which are used for study purposes, prevention of communicable diseases, requests made for investigation purposes, and security purposes.
“The applicants were placed in single cells after the request was made by investigating authorities to isolate them for the duration of the investigation. Keeping the applicants in single cells for longer after the investigations have been completed will negatively impact other inmates who may need to make use of the single cells for any of the reasons mentioned earlier, which in turn will negatively affect the administration of the facility,” Hamunyela argued.
The judge presiding over the matter, Honourable Justice Boas Usiku, postponed the matter to 10 June 2024 for judgment.
