Africa-Press – Namibia. Samuel Shinedima
THE six men accused in the ongoing FishRot case have on Friday afternoon returned to court to file an application for leave to appeal to the supreme court. The leave to appeal application followed the refusal of their bail application by High Court Judge Ueitel Shifimana on the 1st of April 2022.
The application, which is filed by Sacky Shanghala and his 5 co-accused, indicated that the accused intent to appeal to the supreme court against the judgement delivered by Judge Shafimana on the 1st of April, and the subsequently signed copy of the judgment that was released on the 11th April 2022.
It was further argued that the signed Judgement released on the 11th of April 2020 was not the same as the original judgment read by Judge Shafima on the 1st of April when he delivered the said Judgement. It merely records that it was delivered on the 1st of April 2020, and that it was released on 1 April 2022. However, the judgment does set out that the two judgements are different in respects of the details thereunder.
The accused further argued that the signed judgment includes quite significant of material passages that were not contained in the original judgment, adding that the inclusion of the passages in the signed judgment that were not contained in the original judgment is impermissible.
The state opposed the application of the leave to appeal, arguing that leave to appeal can only be granted when there are prospects that the appeal will be successful. The state further argued that there are not substantive grounds to which the supreme court would consider, and that the leave to appeal should not be granted.
While the decision of the leave to appeal is pending before court, the accused men submitted that the purpose of seeking leave against the signed judgment is to approach the supreme court to have the signed judgement declared a nullity. The Judgement of the leave to appeal will be handed down on 22 July 2022.
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