Women go free on drug charges

AFTER spending close to three years in jail in Namibia on drug-smuggling charges, two women heard on Friday that they have been found not guilty as a result of a loophole in Namibian law.

“The law is what it is and not what it ought to be,” magistrate Ingrid Unengu remarked just before she told Zimbabwean citizen Priscilla Masa and her South African co-accused, Sisa Heather Buthelezi, that they were acquitted on the charges they had been facing since their arrest in December 2012.

Delivering her verdict in the two women’s trial in the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court, magistrate Unengu found that it had not been proven that the substance discovered hidden in the two women’s luggage before their arrest in Windhoek on 17 December 2012 was listed in Namibian law as a prohibited drug.

The substance, pseudoephedrine hydrochloride, is in medication format usually used to treat nasal congestion or as an appetite suppressant. However, it can also be used illicitly to manufacture amphetamine.

While amphetamine is listed as a prohibited drug in Namibia, it emerged during the two women’s trial that there is uncertainty about whether pseudoephedrine hydrochloride is also a prohibited drug in terms of Namibian law.

The magistrate recounted in her judgement that the closest the court got to being given an answer on the question about the legal status of the substance in Namibia was in the testimony of a police officer who said he thought that pseudoephedrine hydrochloride was indeed an illegal drug in Namibia.

That was not enough to prove the charge against Masa and Buthelezi beyond reasonable doubt, the magistrate indicated in her verdict.

Having noted that the evidence before the court was that the substance found in the two accused women’s luggage could be used to manufacture methamphetamine – which under the name ‘tik’ has become a major problem in some communities in South Africa – magistrate Unengu said in her opinion pseudoephedrine hydrochloride should be listed as a prohibited drug in Namibia. She also found it was “highly likely” the substance that the two women had in their luggage was to be used to make methamphetamine.

However, the function of the court was to apply the law as it stood, and not as it thought the law should be, she also indicated.

Masa and Buthelezi were charged with importing medicine into Namibia without authorisation. The prosecution alleged that they imported a total of 20,2 kg of pseudoephedrine hydrochloride into Namibia.

They also faced alternative charges of dealing in or possession of potentially dangerous dependence-producing drugs. In the alternative charges, Masa was accused of having dealt in or possessed 9,94 kg of pseudoephedrine hydrochloride, valued at N$347 900, while Buthelezi was accused of having dealt in or possessed 10,26 kg of the substance, valued at N$358 750.

They were arrested after police officers found the suspected illegal drugs hidden in spools of thread in suitcases in the two women’s possession.

During their trial, the two accused claimed they had bought the substance in India and were transporting it via Zambia and Namibia to South Africa, where they were planning to sell it to vendors who in turn would sell it as nasal and sinus decongestants. They also claimed that they hid the substance in their luggage in an attempt to evade paying customs duties in India.

Having pronounced the two accused not guilty, the magistrate ordered that the substance that led to their arrest would be forfeited to the state.

Masa was pregnant at the time of their arrest, and gave birth while in police custody. She was looking forward to seeing her baby again, she said after leaving the court.

Defence lawyer Vetu Uanivi represented Masa and Buthelezi during their trial.