Senior counsel Mike Hellens has slammed a Namibian Supreme Court ruling that dismissed his and his colleague Dawie Joubert's claims they were unlawfully coerced into pleading guilty to immigration fraud as "a shocking failure of justice".
On Friday, three Supreme Court judges ruled in favour of Namibia's Home Affairs Minister Albert Kawana, who appealed a high court's findings that Hellens and Joubert's arrests were characterised by "gross irregularity" and should therefore be set aside as unlawful.
"I feel no doubt in my mind in concluding that the applicants [Hellens and Joubert] have established that a good ground exists to review and set aside the conduct or act complained of," Acting Judge C Parker stated in the now-invalidated high court decision.