Hertta-Maria Amutenja
Kain McNab, a former prisoner, is demanding N$75 015 000 from the Ministry of Home Affairs, Safety and Security on grounds that he was incarcerated illegally for three years, when he was legible for release on parole.
McNab was sentenced to a 28-year prison term in August 1999 after he and his co-accused, Tuhafeni Helmuth Hamwaama shot dead the 44-year-old Martin Andreas, a Coca-Cola truck driver, in his home in Grootfontein in 1996.
They were found guilty of murder and robbery.
However, he claims he was granted automatic remission for nine years and four months meaning he was supposed to be released in April 2018.
McNab claims that he was only released on parole in July 2022 and that the four extra years of incarceration denied him freedom of movement and choice of employment.
According to documents filed at the High Court of Namibia he is claiming that he was called back to serve parole and report to the police station without a court order despite the fact that he was fully released as part of his parole conditions.
“The defendants have thus unlawfully, illegally, knowingly and unconstitutionally denied me freedom and liberty and this converts to a failure to recognize my fundamental human rights. The Defendants unconstitutionally, wrongfully, unlawfully, and maliciously knowingly let me serve a term of 28 years imprisonment while the plaintiff had already completed the sentence in full on 15 April 2018. I was never brought before any competent court for extending my parole to a fair and public hearing,” McNab said.
In addition, McNab is also claiming that the Ministry discriminated against him based on his ethnic group and violated his human rights.
McNab is now demanding N$20 million for constitutional damages and the violation of his dignity and N$15 million in punitive damages.
He further demands an additional N$10 million for the shock, trauma, and suffering, as well as N$8 million for the shock, trauma, and shame that his family experienced.
A further N$7 million is for high blood pressure that McNab says he developed, N$15 000 for the deprivation of his freedom and the discomfort he had to endure, and an additional N$15 000 for the financial loss he suffered in the process.
However, the government disputed that his parole condition denied him the freedom of movement and said that the conditions of his parole were fair and reasonable.
It is further the government’s position that the conditions on his parole were intended at rehabilitating McNab.
The matter is being heard by Judge Nate Ndauendapo. McNab was only released on parole last year in July.
“The manner in which the defendant handled the parole process is a disgrace and a failure of justice and the best way to maintain confidence in the judiciary is to hold the defendant accountable for the constitutional and judicial offence,” McNab said in his claim details.
McNab filed the case against the minister, as well as the national council in August last year.
“The defendant, without any legal hearing, imposed a sentence that did not exist,” claims McNab in court documents.
