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Taxpayers to Foot Bill
for Government Settlement
The Namibian (Windhoek)
February 28, 2003, By Werner Menges
A FORMER senior immigration
officer who sued the Minister of Home Affairs and a top Namibian
Police official for prosecuting him on alleged false charges
this week tasted victory to the tune of N$38 000.
On Monday Police Commissioner
Vilho Nghifindaka was set to continue testifying under cross-examination
from Petrus Damaseb, legal counsel for David Shimwino, a former
Deputy Director of Immigration and Border Control in the Ministry
of Home Affairs, in the High Court in Windhoek.
Nghifindaka never returned
to the witness stand though.
Judge President Pio Teek was
told that the parties had agreed to settle the matter - something
the Judge President had suggested at the outset of case close
to a fortnight ago.
In terms of the settlement,
which was made an order of the court, the Minister and Nghifindaka
must pay Shimwino N$20 000 for damages he claims he suffered
due to a malicious prosecution that he said was instigated by
the Minister and the Commissioner in 1998.
They must also pay Shimwino
N$6 000 for legal expenses he ran up when he faced charges of
fraud, forgery, uttering and contravening the Immigration Control
Act from October 1998, and another N$12 000 to cover his legal
costs in the High Court case he launched against the Minister
and Nghifindaka.
While the court order is against
the Minister and Nghifindaka, Namibia's taxpayers will have to
cough up the money.
Because the Minister and Commissioner
were sued for something they were claimed to have done as part
of their official duties the money will come from Government
coffers.
Shimwino, who is now a businessman,
claimed the Minister and Nghifindaka had no reasonable cause
when they instigated the prosecution against him in 1998, and
that they did not properly investigate the alleged charges against
him.
Nghifindaka told the court
two weeks ago that Shimwino was charged after he had investigated
reports that someone portraying himself as the Deputy Minister
of Home Affairs was helping Chinese nationals to get work permits
from the Home Affairs Ministry.
His investigation indicated
that Shimwino had helped some eight Chinese persons apply for
work permits under the name of a business owned by an associate
of his, who however stated that only four Chinese were supposed
to get work permits in terms of a business agreement he had put
together, Nghifindaka related.
He told the court that it was
after this came to light that he acted on the advice of a lawyer
in the Office of the Attorney General, as well as on the instructions
of a Senior Public Prosecutor, when he had Shimwino arrested
and charged.
The case was later withdrawn
because another Prosecutor had directed that more investigations
needed to be done, the Commissioner testified.
He claimed that the investigation
is continuing, more than five years after it started.
Matti Asino from the Office
of the Government Attorney appeared for the Minister and Nghifindaka.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
 StarPhoenix editorial: Privilege
ruling blow to justice
| Dueck succeeded
in pressing his bad faith block to exculpatory evidence |
a precedent from the Stasi
| Holgate's motions on
Fab. 19
| Matt
Miazga | Terry Hinz
| The $10M+ lawsuit
| StarPhoenix
report from July, 1991
Let's all get really
familiar with the landmark case of Jason Dix who won $200,000 in
punitive damages against a malicious prosecutor | Axworthy's
new job: did he buy it? | Thomas
Sophonow accepts $2.3M settlement | Material
and links previously on this page are here
| Monique
Turenne | Stonechild inquest
| Vernon Crowe inquest
| Edmonton Police grossly abuse
citizen | RCMP harbour deadbeat
dad | Manitoba challenge
to stiffer sentences for police killings | Manish
Odhavji: important police misconduct case before Supreme
Court | Greg Parsons
renews his call for a public inquiry into his wrongful murder
conviction | Tilo Johnson: no
justice for poor and black | Remember the Mark
Cook story from Texas? Last week he got 17 years for a crime
that didn't happen | Shaka Sankofa
| John Patrick McCreary
| Thomas Miller-El | Should cops have tasers? | More research
on memory | Cops get last minute
stall in Chris McCullough lawsuit
| Jonathan Paul (New Brunswick)
| James Steffans | Steven
Kaminski | Kevin MacKinnon
| the childporn witch hunt
| commentary on the pornography
busts | Coerced confessions
across the prairies | Vopni | Abdulahi Mohamed | Don Smith | Leon
Walchuk | | update on Gerald
Morris | Adriaan Mak | Claudette
Grieb | Post 9/11 attacks on
rights | Scott Harnoff |
Operation Northwoods |
Brain fingerprinting |
Stephen Leadbeater
|
What they are saying in the law journals:
Conflicts of interest
|The Seven Deadly Sins of prosecutors
| Lessons from the Proulx
case | Courageous prosecutor Terry
Hinz | Miazga | Hansen | Quinney
| Defence lawyers who perhaps love the Crown too much : Holgate
| Dufour | Axworthy
| the lawyers in the following waltzes of their clients to guilty
verdicts: | Howard Gowan
| Leon Walchuk | Don
Smith | Jay Watson |
|
 Truth can never be
told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd. William Blake, The Proverbs of Hell
Truth suppress'd, whether
by courts or crooks, will find an avenue to be told. Sheila Steele, injusticebusters.com
If you hold the mouth
of Truth, It will burst out its rib-cage. Somali proverb
Publisher : Sheila
Steele
Got something
to say about this or any other stories on this site? Go to injusticebustersblog Participate!
- injusticebusters
court advice :
- How to walk yourself through the justice system
-
- Why you should dump your preliminary hearing (written July 1998 and still valid)
-
- Sermonette:
The
Naked Truth -- (You
will find links to many more sermonettes in the sidebar on this
page
Another target
of Dueck's malice: : Wilf Hathway
Our activism
contributed greatly to the good vibes which happened around the civil
trial.
Index
to the stories on this website
This is not
regularly updated so if you are looking for a particular story
and you have a name or keyword, please use the site search engine(at
the bottom of the page) which IS regularly updated
Index to Saskatoon Police stories
This is a pretty good scrapbook
for the 1998-2002 period.
Inquiry into the malicious prosecution of David
Milgaard untanling 36 years of Saskatchewan police and Crown
misconduct: : Opening day 1 | 2
| 3 | 4
| 5 | 6
| 7 |
- Stephen Williams:
Canadian writer subject to Stasi-like treatment by Canadian police
- Terry
Arnold: : Snitch a
suicide?
- RCMP
scenario stings: Brian
Hutchinson starts digging
- Vopnis
- Abdulai
Mohamed
- Nfld Defamation story:
- Wanda
Young
- Racism
in the Federal Civil Service
The Terrible Story behind the Atif Rafay and
Sebastian Burns convictions
Toronto Police paid out $30M in secretly resolved
claims over last five years
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