Namibia

A prison inmate has won his legal action against the Namibian authorities who confiscated and destroyed wooden craft he had with him in his cell. They have been ordered to pay damages to him – and their interpretation of the law, which formed the basis of their confiscation, has also been shown to have been completely wrong.

It’s not often that courts have to deal with live Bateleur Eagles and Cape Vultures. But the high court in Windhoek, Namibia, has done just that. The birds weren’t actually produced in court, but the judge had to make a decision that would determine their fate. They needed to be moved from one animal sanctuary to another and it seemed that under a 1975 ordinance a permit was required from the relevant minister before the birds could be moved.

A Namibian magistrate has been awarded damages of N$20 000 after an accused, appearing in court before her, handed up a document in which he defamed her. Among other claims, the document, hand-written by the accused, said she was paid by the family of the complainant in the criminal case before her. The magistrate then brought a defamation action in the high court. Now she has won her case and the judge who heard the matter ordered that if the man who defamed her didn’t make her a written apology, the damages award would jump to N$30 000.