Koch extradition hearing starts in Supreme Court

A HEARING in the Supreme Court on Friday signalled the start of German fraud suspect Hans Juergen Koch’s last roll of the legal dice in his almost four-year-long efforts to prevent his extradition to Germany on a host of fraud, tax evasion and forgery charges.

Close to four years after Koch’s arrest, the long and winding road that Germany’s request for Koch’s extradition from Namibia – and in turn Koch’s opposition to that request – have taken through Namibia’s legal system, has finally made it to what should be its last port of call before a final judicial decision is taken in Namibia. Three Acting Judges of Appeal – former Chief Justice Johan Strydom, High Court Judge President Petrus Damaseb, and long-serving Acting Supreme Court Justice Fred Chomba – started hearing legal arguments on the request on Friday.With one of Koch’s lawyers, Louis Botes, still in the process of airing his oral arguments before the country’s highest court, the three Judges are set to continue hearing the case in an unusual weekend session this coming Saturday.Koch is wanted in Germany on 203 charges of fraud, involving the equivalent of some N$440 million, 12 counts of tax evasion, involving the equivalent of some N$24 million, and four charges of falsifying documents.It is alleged that Koch defrauded dozens of German local authorities, and in the process misappropriated some N$110 million for his own benefit, through the dealings of a financing company he ran in Germany from about 1987 to early March 2000.Koch moved to Namibia, where he owned a luxurious hunting farm, La Rochelle, in the Tsumeb district, in December 1999.He was granted permanent residence in Namibia in October 1997 already, and was also issued with a Namibian passport in September 2002.Then, on October 14 2002, Koch’s stay in Namibia took a sudden turn for the worse, when he was arrested at La Rochelle as a result of a request from Germany for his extradition.Koch, who turns 57 years of age later this month, was 54 when he was arrested.He has spent the close to four years since his arrest in custody, locked up in the Grootfontein Prison for most of this time.His legal team has been fighting the extradition proceedings every step of the way through Namibia’s court system.Having been met by failure both in the Tsumeb Magistrate’s Court, and then on appeal in the High Court, they are now continuing an all-out assault against the extradition request in the Supreme Court.It is an attack on a wide front, with an array of points raised by Koch’s legal team in their bid to persuade the court that the extradition request and subsequent legal proceedings have failed to adhere to the letter of Namibia’s Extradition Act.Part of the fatal shortcomings afflicting the extradition request, was the fact that documents that formed part of the request were not properly certified and authenticated as required by the law, Rudi Cohrssen, one of the members of Koch’s legal team, argued on Friday – as he also did in the High Court in late November 2004.In the first place, Cohrssen also argued, Koch had a right to have his case heard in the Supreme Court.This was a pre-emptive reply to the expected argument of Deputy Prosecutor General Danie Small that the Extradition Act provides only for an appeal to the High Court – and not further to the Supreme Court – against a Magistrate’s initial finding in an extradition case.Both Judges Sylvester Mainga and Kato van Niekerk, who heard Koch’s High Court appeal against a Magistrate’s decision that he could be extradited, dismissed the appeal in July last year.The Judges later however disagreed with each other on whether Koch could take the matter further on appeal to the Supreme Court.Judge Mainga found that the High Court was the last court that Koch could have recourse to, and Judge Van Niekerk found that the matter could continue to go on appeal to the Supreme Court.An initial extradition hearing was concluded before a Magistrate at Tsumeb in early September 2003, when the Magistrate ordered that Koch should be kept in prison until the Minister of Justice issued the order that he be sent back to Germany.Three Acting Judges of Appeal – former Chief Justice Johan Strydom, High Court Judge President Petrus Damaseb, and long-serving Acting Supreme Court Justice Fred Chomba – started hearing legal arguments on the request on Friday.With one of Koch’s lawyers, Louis Botes, still in the process of airing his oral arguments before the country’s highest court, the three Judges are set to continue hearing the case in an unusual weekend session this coming Saturday.Koch is wanted in Germany on 203 charges of fraud, involving the equivalent of some N$440 million, 12 counts of tax evasion, involving the equivalent of some N$24 million, and four charges of falsifying documents.It is alleged that Koch defrauded dozens of German local authorities, and in the process misappropriated some N$110 million for his own benefit, through the dealings of a financing company he ran in Germany from about 1987 to early March 2000.Koch moved to Namibia, where he owned a luxurious hunting farm, La Rochelle, in the Tsumeb district, in December 1999.He was granted permanent residence in Namibia in October 1997 already, and was also issued with a Namibian passport in September 2002.Then, on October 14 2002, Koch’s stay in Namibia took a sudden turn for the worse, when he was arrested at La Rochelle as a result of a request from Germany for his extradition.Koch, who turns 57 years of age later this month, was 54 when he was arrested.He has spent the close to four years since his arrest in custody, locked up in the Grootfontein Prison for most of this time.His legal team has been fighting the extradition proceedings every step of the way through Namibia’s court system.Having been met by failure both in the Tsumeb Magistrate’s Court, and then on appeal in the High Court, they are now continuing an all-out assault against the extradition request in the Supreme Court.It is an attack on a wide front, with an array of points raised by Koch’s legal team in their bid to persuade the court that the extradition request and subsequent legal proceedings have failed to adhere to the letter of Namibia’s Extradition Act.Part of the fatal shortcomings afflicting the extradition request, was the fact that documents that formed part of the request were not properly certified and authenticated as required by the law, Rudi Cohrssen, one of the members of Koch’s legal team, argued on Friday – as he also did in the High Court in late November 2004.In the first place, Cohrssen also argued, Koch had a right to have his case heard in the Supreme Court.This was a pre-emptive reply to the expected argument of Deputy Prosecutor General Danie Small that the Extradition Act provides only for an appeal to the High Court – and not further to the Supreme Court – against a Magistrate’s initial finding in an extradition case.Both Judges Sylvester Mainga and Kato van Niekerk, who heard Koch’s High Court appeal against a Magistrate’s decision that he could be extradited, dismissed the appeal in July last year.The Judges later however disagreed with each other on whether Koch could take the matter further on appeal to the Supreme Court.Judge Mainga found that the High Court was the last court that Koch could have recourse to, and Judge Van Niekerk found that the matter could continue to go on appeal to the Supreme Court.An initial extradition hearing was concluded before a Magistrate at Tsumeb in early September 2003, when the Magistrate ordered that Koch should be kept in prison until the Minister of Justice issued the order that he be sent back to Germany.