ACC not biased – Noa

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) has dismissed claims of political bias in the Fishrot case, as lawyers and politicians clash over justice, detention and constitutional rights.

ACC director general Paulus Noa says all arrests and investigations are carried out within the confinement of the law and are based on credible evidence, not political pressure or bias.

Noa’s remarks come in response to criticism from Landless People’s Movement (LPM) leader Bernadus Swartbooi, who on Tuesday slammed the government’s anti-corruption efforts as “misleading” and accused the state of relying on weak evidence to justify prolonged detention, particularly in the high-profile Fishrot fraud, corruption and racketeering case.

Speaking at a media briefing in Windhoek, Swartbooi demanded the immediate release of the Fishrot accused, claiming their continued detention without finalised trials undermines justice.

“They must release these people because they seem to be arresting people left, right, and centre without having conclusive, reasonable evidence that can lead to convictions,” he said.

“Why do you keep people in prison and the state cannot finalise the case, get a conviction, and move on? Why? Because they need spectators to believe they are fighting corruption,” he said.

In response, Noa dismissed the claims, reiterating that the ACC acts strictly in line with the law.

“We take action when it’s necessary to do that. We don’t really discriminate against individuals. It depends on the circumstances and evidence of a given case,” Noa said.

He said the ACC operates strictly under legal provisions that empower it to arrest individuals with or without a warrant, depending on the situation.

“When we find it’s appropriate to make an arrest, we do so, and we do it according to the law. That’s what the law says,” Noa said.

“It means that without a warrant, when circumstances justify actions to be taken, we have to take that action.”

Prosecutor general Martha Imalwa yesterday said the state has been ready for the trial’s proceedings since the start, and it is not the state delaying the case.

“How many applications has the state brought regarding postponements? People should not just make bold accusations without evidence,” she said.

She said Swartbooi, who is an admitted legal practitioner, should have known better than a man on the street, because he has practised law in the past.

‘DETENTION WITHOUT TRIAL’

Lawyer Richard Metcalfe, however, backs Swartbooi’s remarks, saying Namibia has effectively descended into a state of detention without trial.

“Swartbooi is 100% correct. We have sunk to the level of detention without trial, where ‘public interest’ is routinely raised by the state in bail applications,” he says.

Metcalfe says core constitutional rights, including the right to freedom, the presumption of innocence, and the right to a fair trial, are being ignored in favour of the “ridiculous concept of public interest”.

“The public interest, stripped of its judicial mask, is merely a means to deny constitutional rights. We have descended back into the realms of the past, where those rights were a myth,” he says.

Metcalfe claims that Namibia is suffering not only from ‘Fishrot’, ‘diamondrot’, and ‘oilrot’, but also from ‘constitutional rot’.

Meanwhile, Fishrot accused and former justice minister Sacky Shanghala has filed a series of legal applications in the Windhoek High Court, challenging the legitimacy of rulings made by the late acting judge Moses Chinhengo in the Fishrot case.

Among the applications, Shanghala seeks to nullify all rulings made by Chinhengo, arguing that his appointment as a judge was unconstitutional.

He also sought the judge’s recusal before his death.

Shanghala contends that Chinhengo’s appointment violated Article 82 of the Constitution and should therefore be set aside.

He questions why Chinhengo, a Zimbabwean national aged 67 at the time, was appointed when the Constitution sets the judicial retirement age at 65.

While Article 82(4) allows for judicial extensions up to the age of 70, Shanghala argues there is no evidence that such an extension was properly granted.

“This was a failed coup. Somebody was working hard so regime change could be done. It is the weaponising of the judicial and criminal justice system,” Shanghala was quoted as saying.

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