While lawyer Norman Tjombe, who was to ask the High Court to issue an order for the release of Ethiopian national Dereje Demmse Getachew, got what he wanted in respect of the fate of his client, he received an unpleasant surprise in a brief appearance before Acting Judge John Manyarara on Friday.

In an unusual display of judicial ire, the Acting Judge hauled Tjombe over the coals because a report on the intended urgent application for Getachew's release had been published in The Namibian on Friday.

Acting Judge Manyarara started off his verbal dressing-down of the Legal Assistance Director by charging that papers that were before court had been "leaked to the press", before adding: "It's the first time in my life I've come across this sort of thing, and I'm not amused."

In fact, the publication of reports on newly filed court actions is not an unusual occurrence in either The Namibian or other newspapers in Namibia, with the understanding that care has to be taken not to comment on or pre-judge such cases before they have been heard and decided in court.

Tjombe appeared to be taken aback.

He responded that he did not know who had provided the court papers to journalist Tangeni Amupadhi, who had written the report.

Annoyed, Acting Judge Manyarara continued to berate him: "It's not a public relations exercise. We are dealing with the rule of law and constitution of the country, the administration of justice in this country. And you compromise it in such a manner."

Once Tjombe had told Acting Judge Manyarara that Getachew had already been released, the Acting Judge commented that it was probably as a result of the newspaper report.

Then he struck the matter from the court roll.

Getachew claimed that he had been a refugee in South Africa, but had travelled to Namibia on several occasions on business.

He received a permanent residence permit in 2002 - but this turned out to have been a false permit, leading to his arrest and detention as a suspected illegal immigrant on October 18 last year, Getachew said in an affidavit filed with the High Court.

He had also been arrested and detained without trial between February 12 2002 and June 10 2002, when he was accused of assisting people to fraudulently obtain passports and permits from the Ministry of Home Affairs, Getachew added.

He said that he had married a Namibian woman in July last year, and that he had been advised that because of that he had automatically acquired domicile in Namibia, so that he no longer needed any permits to be lawfully resident in Namibia, and with the result that his detention was wrongful and unlawful.

As it turned out, though, neither Tjombe nor Government Lawyer Nixon Marcus, who represented the Minister of Home Affairs at Friday's appearance in court, needed to debate these issues in court.

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