Amushelelo fails with constitutional attack on criminal law

The activist and fraud accused Michael Amushelelo has failed with an attempt to have sections of two of Namibia’s laws declared unconstitutional.

Amushelelo’s application to have sections of Namibia’s Criminal Procedure Act and Banking Institutions Act declared unconstitutional was dismissed in the Windhoek High Court on Friday.

The constitutional application was brought by Amushelelo, his co-accused in a pending fraud case in the High Court, Gregory Cloete, and the married couple Manga Nawa-Mukena and Joseph Mukena, who are also facing fraud charges in the High Court.

The four applicants wanted the court to declare as unconstitutional a section of the Criminal Procedure Act that gives police officers the power to give a written notice to someone that requires the person to attend criminal proceedings in a lower court and produce specified documents and other evidence.

Amushelelo, Cloete, Nawa-Mukena and Mukena alleged that the section is vague and violates the constitutional protection of privacy, and as a result is unconstitutional.

They also asked the court to review and set aside notices issued in terms of the Criminal Procedure Act that were used to collect evidence during the investigation of the charges against them.

That part of their application was also dismissed by deputy judge president Hosea Angula and judges Nate Ndauendapo and Thomas Masuku.

The four applicants further alleged that a section of the Banking Institutions Act that allows bank officials to disclose bank records normally regarded as confidential is unconstitutional.

Amushelelo and Cloete are due to be prosecuted on 365 criminal charges, including 349 counts of fraud, in connection with a foreign currency investment scheme that they ran under the name ‘Project One Million’ in 2018 and 2019.

The charges against Nawa-Mukena and Mukena include 85 counts of fraud, alternatively theft.