Kobi’s extradition battle heads to High Court

THE legality of the appointment of a Magistrate to deal with the United States of America’s request to Namibia to extradite Israeli hi-tech industry pioneer Jacob ‘Kobi’ Alexander to the US is set to be challenged in the High Court before an extradition hearing gets underway.

No date for the start of the extradition hearing was set yesterday when Alexander made a fifth appearance before a Magistrate in the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court since being released on bail of N$10 million on October 3 last year. Alexander has to appear before a Magistrate again on August 13, he was told by the Chief: Lower Courts, Petrus Unengu, at the end of his appearance.By August 10, however, the focus of the legal proceedings that should determine the surrender of Alexander to the US authorities will move to the High Court, it emerged.Cape Town senior counsel Peter Hodes for Alexander told Unengu yesterday that he intends applying to the High Court by August 10 to ask the court to issue declaratory orders that should clear up existing disputes around the legal requirements of the pending extradition proceedings.It is expected that at Alexander’s next scheduled appearance before a Magistrate on August 13, his case will have to be postponed again pending the finalisation of a High Court hearing on the application that Hodes said would be lodged.The issues that the High Court will be asked to rule on will include two main questions around the appointment of a Magistrate to deal with the extradition on which Hodes already addressed Unengu yesterday.Alexander (55), the Israeli-born founder and former Chief Executive Officer of a New York-based supplier of voicemail systems and related technology used in the telecommunications industry, Comverse Technology Inc, is wanted in the United States on 35 criminal charges related to alleged stock options backdating fraud at Comverse between 1998 and 2001.Alexander has lived in Namibia since July last year.He has been free on bail of N$10 million since October 3, having been provisionally arrested in Windhoek on September 27 last year on the strength of an arrest warrant that was granted by a Windhoek Magistrate at the request of the US government.The US government in late October submitted a formal request for Alexander’s extradition to the US to the Namibian Justice Minister.Since then, Alexander has made five appearances before a Magistrate in Windhoek, without a hearing that is required to determine whether he would be extradited, getting off the ground.Hodes yesterday addressed Unengu with arguments on two main legal points with regard to the question whether Namibia’s Extradition Act and other laws have been adhered to with the designation of Unengu as the Magistrate who will have to conduct Alexander’s extradition hearing.Hodes attacked Unengu’s appointment in this capacity on two main fronts.He argued firstly that, as Chief: Lower Courts, Unengu is a member of Namibia’s public service.As a civil servant, he argued, Unengu cannot also act as a Magistrate, as this would be contrary to the Namibian Constitution’s guarantee of the independence of the judiciary and past judgements of both the High Court and Supreme Court of Namibia on the independence of the country’s magistracy.Hodes secondly argued that in terms of Namibia’s Extradition Act, the Magistrate who first remanded Alexander in custody or on bail following his provisional arrest on the strength of the arrest warrant that was issued on September 27 last year, is the Magistrate who then also has to conduct the actual extradition hearing.That means that Magistrate Uaatjo Uanivi, and not Unengu, would have to be the Magistrate to decide on whether Alexander should be extradited to the US, Hodes said.Uanivi heard a bail application by Alexander in early October last year.That bail hearing ended with Uanivi granting Alexander bail of N$10 million – a record amount for Namibia.Since his arrest set in motion the extradition process in Namibia, Alexander has maintained his silence on the allegations being levelled against him in an indictment that a Grand Jury of the US District Court in the Eastern District of New York decided to charge him with in early October.He however issued a statement through his Windhoek lawyers, Metcalfe Legal Practitioners, on June 26.The firm stated that stock options backdating in itself was not illegal under US law and that the charges against Alexander rather related to the disclosure and accounting treatment of the options he had received at Comverse.”However, Kobi Alexander is neither a lawyer nor an accountant,” the law firm stated on his behalf.”Like Steve Jobs of Apple Computer, and other CEOs of companies that allegedly issued backdated options but have not been charged with any misconduct, Mr Alexander relied on lawyers and accountants to draft Comverse’s disclosures and to prepare its financial statements.””If he is extradited to the United States, he will plead not guilty and vigorously contest all the charges against him,” the law firm said.Alexander remains free on bail.Alexander has to appear before a Magistrate again on August 13, he was told by the Chief: Lower Courts, Petrus Unengu, at the end of his appearance.By August 10, however, the focus of the legal proceedings that should determine the surrender of Alexander to the US authorities will move to the High Court, it emerged.Cape Town senior counsel Peter Hodes for Alexander told Unengu yesterday that he intends applying to the High Court by August 10 to ask the court to issue declaratory orders that should clear up existing disputes around the legal requirements of the pending extradition proceedings. It is expected that at Alexander’s next scheduled appearance before a Magistrate on August 13, his case will have to be postponed again pending the finalisation of a High Court hearing on the application that Hodes said would be lodged.The issues that the High Court will be asked to rule on will include two main questions around the appointment of a Magistrate to deal with the extradition on which Hodes already addressed Unengu yesterday.Alexander (55), the Israeli-born founder and former Chief Executive Officer of a New York-based supplier of voicemail systems and related technology used in the telecommunications industry, Comverse Technology Inc, is wanted in the United States on 35 criminal charges related to alleged stock options backdating fraud at Comverse between 1998 and 2001.Alexander has lived in Namibia since July last year.He has been free on bail of N$10 million since October 3, having been provisionally arrested in Windhoek on September 27 last year on the strength of an arrest warrant that was granted by a Windhoek Magistrate at the request of the US government.The US government in late October submitted a formal request for Alexander’s extradition to the US to the Namibian Justice Minister.Since then, Alexander has made five appearances before a Magistrate in Windhoek, without a hearing that is required to determine whether he would be extradited, getting off the ground.Hodes yesterday addressed Unengu with arguments on two main legal points with regard to the question whether Namibia’s Extradition Act and other laws have been adhered to with the designation of Unengu as the Magistrate who will have to conduct Alexander’s extradition hearing.Hodes attacked Unengu’s appointment in this capacity on two main fronts.He argued firstly that, as Chief: Lower Courts, Unengu is a member of Namibia’s public service.As a civil servant, he argued, Unengu cannot also act as a Magistrate, as this would be contrary to the Namibian Constitution’s guarantee of the independence of the judiciary and past judgements of both the High Court and Supreme Court of Namibia on the independence of the country’s magistracy.Hodes secondly argued that in terms of Namibia’s Extradition Act, the Magistrate who first remanded Alexander in custody or on bail following his provisional arrest on the strength of the arrest warrant that was issued on September 27 last year, is the Magistrate who then also has to conduct the actual extradition hearing
.That means that Magistrate Uaatjo Uanivi, and not Unengu, would have to be the Magistrate to decide on whether Alexander should be extradited to the US, Hodes said.Uanivi heard a bail application by Alexander in early October last year.That bail hearing ended with Uanivi granting Alexander bail of N$10 million – a record amount for Namibia.Since his arrest set in motion the extradition process in Namibia, Alexander has maintained his silence on the allegations being levelled against him in an indictment that a Grand Jury of the US District Court in the Eastern District of New York decided to charge him with in early October.He however issued a statement through his Windhoek lawyers, Metcalfe Legal Practitioners, on June 26.The firm stated that stock options backdating in itself was not illegal under US law and that the charges against Alexander rather related to the disclosure and accounting treatment of the options he had received at Comverse.”However, Kobi Alexander is neither a lawyer nor an accountant,” the law firm stated on his behalf.”Like Steve Jobs of Apple Computer, and other CEOs of companies that allegedly issued backdated options but have not been charged with any misconduct, Mr Alexander relied on lawyers and accountants to draft Comverse’s disclosures and to prepare its financial statements.””If he is extradited to the United States, he will plead not guilty and vigorously contest all the charges against him,” the law firm said.Alexander remains free on bail.