Namibia’s Supreme court rules long jail terms are unconstitutional

Namibia’s Supreme Court has ruled as unconstitutional
unnecessarily long jail terms handed to convicts in a landmark case
involving four murderers.

The Namibian news portal said the Tuesday February 6 decision
was a unanimous position taken by the apex court of the southern
African country.

The lead judgment delivered by Judge Smuts held that
imprisonments that left offenders without a realistic chance of
ever being released amounted to cruel, degrading and inhuman
punishment. He added that such sentences infringed on the
prisoner’s constitutional rights human dignity.

The specific case that prompted the ruling involved four murder
convicts jailed over 60 years each in 2002 by a High Court in the
capital, Windhoek.

Zedekias Gaingob, Erenstein Haufiku and Solomon Kheibeb were
each sentenced to an effective jail term of 67 years, while
Nicodemus Urikhob was sentenced to 64 years, after they had been
convicted of having robbed and murdered an elderly couple at a farm
in April 2000.

The court subsequently remitted the sentences of the four to two
life imprisonment terms that should run concurrently. The terms are
also to be backdated to February 2002, the portal further
clarified.

Under the current Namibian law, anyone sentenced to life
imprisonment after 15 August 1999, would be eligible to be
considered for release on parole or probation after serving at
least 25 years in prison without committing or being convicted of
any crime or offence during that period.

The judges held that the 60 years plus terms meant that the four
persons in this case could only be eligible for parole only after
over 40 years in jail, which situation contravenes the current
law.

Whiles noting that the offences for which they had been
convicted were ‘brutal and vicious in the extreme,’ the judges
tasked prison authorities to also ensure that convicts granted
parole are those that would lead a responsible life after
release.

In other parts of the continent, murder conviction is met with
the death penalty. Egypt was the most recent to apply the measure
against persons found complicit in terrorism related offences.

Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni has hinted that he will start
signing death warrants despite outcry from rights and civil society
groups. In Tanzania, President Magufuli has asked the judiciary not
to approach him with such warrants because he will not sign for
another to be killed.

Namibia’s Supreme Court has ruled as unconstitutional
unnecessarily long jail terms handed to convicts in a landmark case
involving four murderers.

The Namibian news portal said the Tuesday February 6 decision
was a unanimous position taken by the apex court of the southern
African country.

The lead judgment delivered by Judge Smuts held that
imprisonments that left offenders without a realistic chance of
ever being released amounted to cruel, degrading and inhuman
punishment. He added that such sentences infringed on the
prisoner’s constitutional rights human dignity.

The specific case that prompted the ruling involved four murder
convicts jailed over 60 years each in 2002 by a High Court in the
capital, Windhoek.

Zedekias Gaingob, Erenstein Haufiku and Solomon Kheibeb were
each sentenced to an effective jail term of 67 years, while
Nicodemus Urikhob was sentenced to 64 years, after they had been
convicted of having robbed and murdered an elderly couple at a farm
in April 2000.

The court subsequently remitted the sentences of the four to two
life imprisonment terms that should run concurrently. The terms are
also to be backdated to February 2002, the portal further
clarified.

Under the current Namibian law, anyone sentenced to life
imprisonment after 15 August 1999, would be eligible to be
considered for release on parole or probation after serving at
least 25 years in prison without committing or being convicted of
any crime or offence during that period.

The judges held that the 60 years plus terms meant that the four
persons in this case could only be eligible for parole only after
over 40 years in jail, which situation contravenes the current
law.

Whiles noting that the offences for which they had been
convicted were ‘brutal and vicious in the extreme,’ the judges
tasked prison authorities to also ensure that convicts granted
parole are those that would lead a responsible life after
release.

In other parts of the continent, murder conviction is met with
the death penalty. Egypt was the most recent to apply the measure
against persons found complicit in terrorism related offences.

Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni has hinted that he will start
signing death warrants despite outcry from rights and civil society
groups. In Tanzania, President Magufuli has asked the judiciary not
to approach him with such warrants because he will not sign for
another to be killed.