Extradition appeal of German fraud suspect gets postponed

GERMAN fraud suspect Hans Juergen Guenther Koch will spend at least another four months in jail in Namibia because he scored a victory on Wednesday in the first stage of his High Court appeal to prevent his extradition to Germany.

Koch is appealing against a Tsumeb Magistrate’s Court finding that he may be extradited to Germany to stand trial on 203 charges of fraud, 12 counts of tax evasion and four charges of falsifying documents. The initial victory in his appeal before Judge Sylvester Mainga and acting Judge Kato van Niekerk came when they dismissed preliminary points that Deputy Prosecutor General Danie Small had raised at the start of the appeal hearing in Windhoek on June 3.Having dismissed Small’s arguments, with reasons for this ruling to follow, the court again postponed the case to allow arguments to be heard on October 28 and 29.By that time, Koch will have been in Police custody in Namibia for more than two years.Koch was arrested on October 14 2002 at the La Rochelle Hunting Lodge, the Tsumeb district hunting farm that he bought in 1994 and developed into a luxurious resort.Koch’s arrest followed a request from the German government that Namibia extradite Koch to Germany to face trial.Koch faces accusations that a financial scheme that he had run in Germany had cost German local authorities about 84 million Deutschmarks (N$420 million).The scheme is alleged to have collapsed in March 2000 – by which time Koch had been living in Namibia for some three months already.It is also alleged that Koch siphoned off some 22 million Deutschmarks (about N$110 million) from the scheme for personal use between 1996 and 1999 alone, and had neglected to pay some 4,8 million Deutschmarks (N$24 million) in taxes between 1993 and 1998.In November 2002, when he unsuccessfully applied for bail in the Tsumeb Magistrate’s Court, Koch denied that he was guilty of any wrongdoing.The record of those bail proceedings formed the subject of one of the preliminary points that Small had raised and that the court dismissed on Wednesday.Small had argued that the bail hearing’s record should form part of the extradition hearing’s record before the High Court for the appeal.He had also argued, again without success, that the magistrate who presided at the bail hearing should have continued to preside at the eventual main extradition hearing and, since that had not been the case, the matter had to return to the Tsumeb Magistrate’s Court for an extradition hearing before the original magistrate.Had Judge Mainga and acting Judge Van Niekerk agreed with Small’s last point, a return to the Tsumeb Magistrate’s Court could have provided the State with a potentially significant advantage.Because then the State might have been able to rectify any mistakes that might have been made during the extradition hearing but which were only realised once the matter went on appeal.As it is, it appears that the State will now not have that chance, but will have to stand – or fall – by what took place in the lower court.The time Koch spends in custody in the meantime may turn out not to have been a total waste.In its initial extradition request to Namibia, the German government explained that any time that Koch spent in custody in Namibia while awaiting extradition would be offset against any sentence that might be imposed once he was tried in Germany.The initial victory in his appeal before Judge Sylvester Mainga and acting Judge Kato van Niekerk came when they dismissed preliminary points that Deputy Prosecutor General Danie Small had raised at the start of the appeal hearing in Windhoek on June 3.Having dismissed Small’s arguments, with reasons for this ruling to follow, the court again postponed the case to allow arguments to be heard on October 28 and 29.By that time, Koch will have been in Police custody in Namibia for more than two years.Koch was arrested on October 14 2002 at the La Rochelle Hunting Lodge, the Tsumeb district hunting farm that he bought in 1994 and developed into a luxurious resort.Koch’s arrest followed a request from the German government that Namibia extradite Koch to Germany to face trial.Koch faces accusations that a financial scheme that he had run in Germany had cost German local authorities about 84 million Deutschmarks (N$420 million).The scheme is alleged to have collapsed in March 2000 – by which time Koch had been living in Namibia for some three months already.It is also alleged that Koch siphoned off some 22 million Deutschmarks (about N$110 million) from the scheme for personal use between 1996 and 1999 alone, and had neglected to pay some 4,8 million Deutschmarks (N$24 million) in taxes between 1993 and 1998.In November 2002, when he unsuccessfully applied for bail in the Tsumeb Magistrate’s Court, Koch denied that he was guilty of any wrongdoing.The record of those bail proceedings formed the subject of one of the preliminary points that Small had raised and that the court dismissed on Wednesday.Small had argued that the bail hearing’s record should form part of the extradition hearing’s record before the High Court for the appeal.He had also argued, again without success, that the magistrate who presided at the bail hearing should have continued to preside at the eventual main extradition hearing and, since that had not been the case, the matter had to return to the Tsumeb Magistrate’s Court for an extradition hearing before the original magistrate.Had Judge Mainga and acting Judge Van Niekerk agreed with Small’s last point, a return to the Tsumeb Magistrate’s Court could have provided the State with a potentially significant advantage.Because then the State might have been able to rectify any mistakes that might have been made during the extradition hearing but which were only realised once the matter went on appeal.As it is, it appears that the State will now not have that chance, but will have to stand – or fall – by what took place in the lower court.The time Koch spends in custody in the meantime may turn out not to have been a total waste.In its initial extradition request to Namibia, the German government explained that any time that Koch spent in custody in Namibia while awaiting extradition would be offset against any sentence that might be imposed once he was tried in Germany.