Five long-term prisoners who sued Namibia’s prison authorities in an attempt to confirm that they can get a reduction of the sentences they are serving have won their case in the Windhoek High Court.
In a judgement delivered on Tuesday, deputy judge president Hosea Angula declared that five prisoners who sued the prison authorities are eligible to be considered for a reduction of their sentences by the minister of home affairs, immigration, safety and security, on a recommendation from the chairperson of the National Release Board.
Angula also declared that a section of the Prisons Act of 1998 that allows the minister to grant prison inmates a remission of their sentences on a recommendation of the National Release Board applies to the five prisoners.
The Namibian Correctional Service’s commissioner general should now within 60 days have assessments done of the five inmates’ conduct in prison, and the outcome of those assessments should be reported to the chairperson of the National Release Board to make recommendations to the minister, Angula ordered as well.
The five prisoners who sued the prison authorities are Rachimo Haradoeb, Veikko Shalimba, Anton Venasi, David Tsamaseb and Simon Josef Kankondi.
They are all serving long jail terms, ranging from 35 years’ imprisonment to 39 years, having been convicted of crimes including murder, robbery with aggravating circumstances and arson.
According to the five inmates, they applied to the commissioner general to be considered for parole, but were informed they are not eligible for either parole or remission of their sentences as they have not yet served two thirds of their prison terms as required by the Correctional Service Act of 2012.
Angula observed that the granting of parole to a prison inmate is a conditional release, coupled with stipulated conditions to which a prisoner should adhere after their release.
Remission of sentence, on the other hand, is a privilege and not a right, and the purpose of it is to serve as an incentive to encourage good, disciplined behaviour and adherence to prison procedures, Angula also noted.
The five inmates all committed their crimes and were sentenced while the 1998 Prisons Act was in force.
The Prisons Act was repealed by the Correctional Service Act of 2012, but the five prisoners acquired rights to be considered for remission under the repealed law, Angula stated.
According to the prison authorities, however, they are serving sentences for crimes which the Prisons Act excluded from an automatic reduction of one third of an offender’s sentence, and they can only be granted remission by the minister on recommendation of the National Release Board.
The issue he had to decide was how much of their sentence offenders have to serve before they become eligible to be considered for remission of their sentence, Angula said.
The Prisons Act stated that every person eligible for remission of sentence would at the start of their sentence be credited with the full remission period to which they would be entitled, Angula observed.
He found that the act stated that prisoners may through good conduct earn a reduction of one third of their sentence, and that this had to be calculated at the start of their sentence.
The prison authorities’ stance that remission of sentence should be implemented only closer to the end of two thirds of an inmate’s sentence is wrong, as it is in conflict with the clear provisions of the Prisons Act, Angula concluded.
He stated: “In plain language, the calculation of remission must be done as soon as an offender is admitted to a correctional facility, or as soon as possible thereafter.”
Legal counsel Thomas Kasita represented the five prisoners.
The prison authorities were represented by government lawyer Charmaine Taati van der Smit.
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