Fraud suspect’s extradition appeal stalls in High Court

AN appeal that Tsumeb area hunting lodge owner Hans Juergen Guenter Koch launched to prevent his extradition to his native Germany to face fraud charges involving some N$420 million, stalled in the starting blocks in the High Court in Windhoek yesterday.

Koch’s appeal against a ruling in which the Tsumeb Magistrate’s Court in September last year paved the way for the Minister of Justice to order that Koch should be extradited to Germany is now set to return to the High Court on June 23. But the actual hearing of Koch’s appeal is not expected to take place on that date.Instead, Judge Sylvester Mainga and Acting Judge Kato van Niekerk will rule on two preliminary points that Deputy Prosecutor General Danie Small, appearing for the State, raised yesterday.Small argued that the record of a bail application by Koch that was heard in the Tsumeb Magistrate’s Court in November 2002 also had to form part of the case record before the High Court, and that the actual extradition enquiry that took place before another Magistrate last year should have been heard by the same Magistrate that presided at the bail hearing.The result of Small’s argument, if it is accepted by the court, could be that all proceedings in Koch’s case that took place in the Tsumeb Magistrate’s Court after Magistrate LK Amutse had acceded to a defence request for his recusal from the case, might be regarded as invalid.Magistrate Amutse might then be required to hold another enquiry to determine whether evidence before the court was sufficient to warrant a finding that Koch was extraditable to Germany.In his reply to Small’s argument, one of Koch’s lawyers, Rudi Cohrssen, replied that if Small’s argument was correct, Koch would be in “the esoteric situation” of possibly having been in unlawful custody for over a year by now.In direct contrast to Small, he argued that the bail application heard in the Tsumeb Magistrate’s Court did not form part of the extradition proceedings, which Cohrssen said started only after Magistrate Mikka Namweya had taken Magistrate Amutse’s place on the bench at Tsumeb.Koch (55), who owns the La Rochelle Hunting Lodge north-east of Tsumeb, has been in custody for close to a year and eight months.He has been in Namibia since December 1999, having visited the country regularly in the years before then and having been granted permanent residence status in Namibia in October 1997.He was also issued with a Namibian travel document in September 2002, about three weeks before he was arrested at the request of the German government.Koch is wanted in Germany on 203 charges of fraud, four charges of forging documents, and twelve counts of tax evasion.The charges stem from allegations that he had run a borrowing and lending scheme involving German local authorities between 1987 and 1999, that he had withdrawn some 22 million Deutschmarks (about N$110 million) from the scheme for his own use, and that when Koch’s financing scheme collapsed in March 2000, seven local authorities in Germany were still owed money after they had deposited some 84 million Deutschmarks (about N$420 million) into the scheme.But the actual hearing of Koch’s appeal is not expected to take place on that date.Instead, Judge Sylvester Mainga and Acting Judge Kato van Niekerk will rule on two preliminary points that Deputy Prosecutor General Danie Small, appearing for the State, raised yesterday.Small argued that the record of a bail application by Koch that was heard in the Tsumeb Magistrate’s Court in November 2002 also had to form part of the case record before the High Court, and that the actual extradition enquiry that took place before another Magistrate last year should have been heard by the same Magistrate that presided at the bail hearing.The result of Small’s argument, if it is accepted by the court, could be that all proceedings in Koch’s case that took place in the Tsumeb Magistrate’s Court after Magistrate LK Amutse had acceded to a defence request for his recusal from the case, might be regarded as invalid.Magistrate Amutse might then be required to hold another enquiry to determine whether evidence before the court was sufficient to warrant a finding that Koch was extraditable to Germany.In his reply to Small’s argument, one of Koch’s lawyers, Rudi Cohrssen, replied that if Small’s argument was correct, Koch would be in “the esoteric situation” of possibly having been in unlawful custody for over a year by now.In direct contrast to Small, he argued that the bail application heard in the Tsumeb Magistrate’s Court did not form part of the extradition proceedings, which Cohrssen said started only after Magistrate Mikka Namweya had taken Magistrate Amutse’s place on the bench at Tsumeb.Koch (55), who owns the La Rochelle Hunting Lodge north-east of Tsumeb, has been in custody for close to a year and eight months.He has been in Namibia since December 1999, having visited the country regularly in the years before then and having been granted permanent residence status in Namibia in October 1997.He was also issued with a Namibian travel document in September 2002, about three weeks before he was arrested at the request of the German government.Koch is wanted in Germany on 203 charges of fraud, four charges of forging documents, and twelve counts of tax evasion.The charges stem from allegations that he had run a borrowing and lending scheme involving German local authorities between 1987 and 1999, that he had withdrawn some 22 million Deutschmarks (about N$110 million) from the scheme for his own use, and that when Koch’s financing scheme collapsed in March 2000, seven local authorities in Germany were still owed money after they had deposited some 84 million Deutschmarks (about N$420 million) into the scheme.