Namibian Supreme Court

AFTER one of the most lengthy and grueling trials in Namibian history, former Supreme Court judge Pio Teek has finally been acquitted on all counts of sexual misbehavior first laid against him in January 2005. This week’s Supreme Court decision clearing him completely pointed out examples of shoddy work in the case by police investigators and others, and warned that the “systemic failures” evident in the case brought the system of criminal justice into disrepute. It could result “in a travesty of justice”, said the judges.

In an important decision clarifying the law for people claiming rights over communal land, Namibia’s highest court has found in favour of a woman in the remote Zambezi region. Agnes Kashela claimed she had inherited the right to part of the communal land held by the Mafwe Traditional Authority. At independence however all communal land became the property of the state, and part of the Mafwe land had been transferred to the local town council at Katima Mulilo.

In an important new decision, Namibia’s highest court has held that judges in that country may not impose jail terms that are “longer than a life sentence”. Prisoners serving life may be considered for possible parole after 25 years, and the supreme court has now held that any sentence in which parole is not at least notionally possible after 25 years, would be unconstitutional. The court was dealing with an appeal in which a trial court had imposed sentences of well over 60 years.