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<\/p>\nTHE Director of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), Paulus Noa, has welcomed the arrest of fishrot accused lawyer Maren De Klerk, who was arrested last week in South Africa. De Klerk is being sought by Namibian authorities for extradition to stand trial for one of the country’s biggest fisheries corruption scandals.<\/p>\n
De Klerk, who appeared in the Paarl Magistrate Court in South Africa, covered his face. However, the court granted Namibian prosecutors until tomorrow to gather their defense to oppose De Klerk’s release.<\/p>\n
Below follows an article written by the Mail and Guardian which summarized the court proceedings:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
State must get its \u2018act in order\u2019 in Fishrot extradition case<\/p>\n
By Eunice Stoltz<\/p>\n
A Paarl magistrate court has granted the state a postponement to tomorrow for its application to oppose bail for Mar\u00e9n de Klerk, the man wanted by Namibian authorities for his alleged role as paymaster in the ongoing multimillion \u201cFishrot\u201d corruption case.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors are expected to submit a schedule five bail application opposing De Klerk\u2019s release. However, advocate Mar\u00e9sa Engelbrecht indicated the state was not ready to proceed when De Klerk appeared in court on Monday.<\/p>\n
Senior magistrate Morajee Naik demanded to know why state lawyers were unprepared when they had known De Klerk would be arrested and they would oppose his release. Engelbrecht said prosecutors were waiting for a statement from the investigating officer working on the case.<\/p>\n
De Klerk, a former lawyer, is wanted by the Namibian government for corruption, fraud, theft and money laundering. He is accused of using his trust account for the distribution of ill-gotten loot to various accounts in the Fishrot corruption trial in which Namibia\u2019s former fisheries minister Bernhardt Esau is embroiled.<\/p>\n
On 1 February 2022, a Paarl magistrate court issued a warrant of arrest for De Klerk, after the Namibian authorities requested his extradition. The Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation\u2019s serious commercial crime investigation unit and Interpol arrested De Klerk last Thursday in Paarl, more than a year after the warrant was issued.<\/p>\n
Christie Viviers, acting for the accused on Monday, described his client\u2019s arrest as unconstitutional and an infringement on his rights.<\/p>\n
At the time of De Klerk\u2019s arrest, his phone and laptop were confiscated. Viviers said De Klerk had been asked to work with the authorities by disclosing the security codes for his devices, which he did. After the defence objected that this was an infringement on De Klerk\u2019s privacy, the state handed back the two devices.<\/p>\n
Viviers emphasised that De Klerk had willingly met investigating officers from the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) when he was arrested.<\/p>\n
De Klerk and another alleged victim of a fraudulent lawyer were scheduled to meet the NPA regarding charges they had brought against the lawyer but De Klerk was arrested halfway through the meeting.<\/p>\n
The defence asked the magistrate why De Klerk had been arrested on that specific day when the court had issued an arrest warrant in February last year. Viviers said the police had had ample time to arrest his client as he had visited them on numerous occasions in the matter concerning disbarred lawyer Ben van Heerden.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was in this country for more than a year and he was not arrested,\u201d Viviers said.<\/p>\n
He recalled an incident shortly after the arrest warrant was issued when a \u201cCaptain Mahope\u201d visited De Klerk\u2019s house. De Klerk, who was not there at the time, asked the captain to send him the warrant but the police never did.<\/p>\n
Viviers asked that De Klerk be released on bail, arguing that \u201cit is unfair to keep my client in custody. He has no intention to flee. He can hand in his passports\u201d. De Klerk has dual Namibian-South African citizenship .<\/p>\n
Engelbrecht told the court that De Klerk had been sought by authorities since February last year but had been picked up after new evidence surfaced the week before his arrest.<\/p>\n
Naik had a difficult time understanding how De Klerk was not arrested earlier while \u201cat least two police officers knew of him [and] they had his cellphone number\u201d.<\/p>\n
The state maintained in March that it was thought that De Klerk was in Saldanha, on the West Coast, and that he had changed his name.<\/p>\n
De Klerk\u2019s defence confirmed that the name change \u2014 from Mar\u00e9n to Michael \u2014 was finalised in January after a media onslaught against him over his alleged role in the Fishcor corruption case.<\/p>\n
Naik granted the state a postponement on Monday, but not without ordering that it get \u201cits act in order\u201d and have all documents ready tomorrow. De Klerk will remain in custody in Allandale prison until then.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the Namibian anti-corruption commission has welcomed De Klerk\u2019s arrest, with its director general Paulus Noa telling the Mail & Guardian that the entity was confident the arrest would result in \u201cexpeditious extradition proceedings\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cMr De Klerk, according to our investigation, has a case to answer and must therefore join other accused in the Fishrot case,\u201d Noa said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
THE Director of the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), Paulus Noa, has welcomed the arrest of fishrot accused lawyer Maren De Klerk, who was arrested last week in South Africa. De Klerk is being sought by Namibian authorities for extradition to stand trial for one of the country’s biggest fisheries corruption scandals. De Klerk, who appeared in …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":341067,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-341066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n