Safety minister Albert Kawana says government will study this week’s High Court judgement that could see former parliamentarian Geoffrey Mwilima released
from prison, pending a medical examination.
This week, High Court Judge Esi Schimming-Chase ordered the medical officer at the Windhoek Correctional Facility, where Mwilima has been an inmate since 1999, to decide within 15 days whether he is suffering from a serious disease.
The medical officer should also determine whether Mwilima’s continued incarceration is detrimental to his health. The judge also ordered the medical officer to make a recommendation to Kawana within 20 days if it is established that Mwilima is suffering from a dangerous disease and that his continued imprisonment is detrimental to his health.
In essence, if Mwilima is found to be unfit to remain in prison on medical grounds, his release will become imminent.
Reacting yesterday, Kawana said they respect the judgement, but will review it to chart an informed way forward.
“We are a country ruled by the rule of law and democracy where everyone has equal rights. Sometimes you may not agree [with the judgement], or agree and half-agree. We are going to review and see what the best way forward is,” Kawana said.
The government, Kawana said, has two options at its disposal.
“The only way if you are not happy, you appeal to the Supreme Court or you accept it,” said Kawana. The government is opposed to Mwilima’s release.
Schimming-Chase on the same day also declared the Namibia Correctional Service’s regulation 274, which says an inmate should be in danger of “imminent death” before a medical officer can recommend their release on medial grounds, as beyond the purview of the powers given to the minister of safety and security in the Correctional Services Act.
“It is my considered view on a grammatical and contextual interpretation of the section that, the Legislature did not intend imminent death to be a requirement for release on medical grounds as is required in terms of the reg (regulation) 274. Had that been the intention of Legislature, it would have been stated as such in (section) 109,” Schimming-Chase said.
Meanwhile, the Popular Democratic Movement (PDM) welcomed the latest development.
“If it is found that he is unfit to remain in prison on health grounds and is released, it is a good gesture from the Judiciary. Finally, he will be a free man and have access to family support and medical facilities,” PDM’s secretary general Manuel Ngarigombe said.
Mwilima was found to have been part of the armed secessionist organisation in the former Caprivi region which conspired to secede that
part of the country from Namibia between September 1998 and December 2003.
His first go to get a court order that would pave the way for his release on medical grounds, fell flat in may last year.
At the time, Mwilima informed the court that he is suffering from kidney failure, which necessitates dialysis treatment twice a week, uncontrolled, epilepsy, diabetes and high blood pressure.
For years, PDM leaders have been staunch activists of Mwilima’s release on medical grounds.
“We are killing Mwilima in prison… We respect the rulings of the courts, but there were two physicians of mine who said that man [Mwilima] is really unfit to be there. So, you can’t have someone who is suffering from hypertension, kidney failure, who receives dialysis every month and who is diabetic, in prison,” the movement’s leader McHenry Venaani said last year.
Alliance
Mwilima, who has been in jail for more than 21 years after his arrest in August 1999 prior to his conviction for high treason in 2016, is serving an 18-year prison term.
The Supreme Court, despite rejecting his appeal against the conviction, decreased his sentence to 15 years.
At the time of his arrest, Mwilima, who previously served as a National Assembly member on a DTA ticket was 44. Asked if PDM would welcome Mwilima back to its fold, should the release become a reality, Ngaringombe said it is premature to say.
“We don’t have a comment for now. We need to give him time to focus on his health. Only then we can maybe talk about his political career,” the politician advanced.