WINDHOEK – Legal practitioner Norman Tjombe is considering taking legal action against German national Klaus Weichhaus for allegedly posting defamatory photos of the lawyer’s minor daughter on Facebook.
In a letter to Weichhaus seen by New Era, Tjombe writes that Weichhaus posted photographs of his (Tjombe’s) daughter on his (Weichhaus’) Facebook wall, alongside derogatory comments and statements on abortion, racism, tribalism, hate speech, Nazism and incitement to murder, to mention but a few.
“I shall take only the most rigorous legal action against you, including lodging criminal charges against you with the Namibian Police, and instituting civil legal proceedings against you. These shall be rigorously and vigorously pursued against you,” Tjombe told Weichhaus in a letter authored this week.
“I have tolerated your scurrilous and filthy comments and statements for too long, but I now have to protect the rights, safety, security and innocence of my minor daughter,” Tjombe added.
“Not only are these comments and statements defamatory of my daughter, but you have exposed my minor daughter to the filth, vitriol and violence of your comments and statements to which your Facebook wall is accustomed,” the lawyer continued.
Two years ago the High Court granted Weichhaus’s ex-girlfriend Grace Zamuee an interim order against Weichhaus, which ordered him to remove all defamatory material concerning her from his Facebook profile.
The court also said he must refrain from defaming Zamuee on the internet or anywhere else. Tjombe represented Zamuee in that matter.
In court papers in the High Court, Zamuee pointed out that Weichhaus relentlessly stalked her at her workplace – Cash Crusaders situated in Wernhil Park. Weichhaus claimed to her bosses she had stolen goods from the shop. He was later banned from entering the shop, but would stand outside and watch her.
According to her, Weichhaus was unrelenting on Facebook, including falsely accusing her of having an abortion and publishing pictures of aborted foetuses.
Tjombe further wrote that Weichhaus not only committed contempt of court for violating the orders granted on January 24 2013 and March 1 2013, “but you continued, with impunity, to defame and ridicule members of the judiciary (which is in itself contemptuous), colleagues and associates of mine, my clients and my family”.
“You have not even spared my elderly grandmother, making defamatory comments of her and my grandfather, who passed away more than 20 years ago. You have no knowledge of my family and their history, yet you make such unfounded and serious defamatory allegations, without regard to the injurious consequences of your actions,” he added.
“No doubt, you have also violated the terms of your residence in Namibia – a matter which will be communicated to the Namibian Ministry of Home Affairs and Immigration and the German Embassy in Namibia. I am aware that you are wanted in your native Germany for prosecution of crimes related to your promotion of Nazism,” Tjombe stated.