Court postpones fugitive lawyer’s bail proceedings
NAMIBIAN runaway lawyer Marén de Klerk, the self-confessed paymaster in Namibia’s ongoing multimillion-rand “Fishrot” corruption case, will know today whether he will be released on bail or not.
The matter of the determination of the date for De Klerk’s bail application was postponed on Monday by the Paarl Magistrate’s Court.
Meanwhile, the Namibian authorities have requested that De Klerk be extradited.
De Klerk was arrested on Thursday last week on charges of racketeering, fraud, corruption and money laundering under an Interpol red notice.
De Klerk admitted in papers filed in the Namibian courts that he was at the centre of making payments in Namibia’s biggest corruption scandal, using the now-defunct law firm De Klerk, Horn and Coetzee Incorporated (DHC), which he co-owned.
He claimed the so-called “Fishrot” scheme was hatched at a meeting in Cape Town in December 2016.
The bribe money was allegedly used to shore up support for Namibia’s President Hage Geingob ahead of that country’s governing party’s 2017 elective congress.
In April 2021, a Windhoek magistrate authorised a warrant for De Klerk’s arrest, and the Namibian government thereafter requested he be extradited to face charges in Namibia.
De Klerk initially appeared before Namibia’s Anti-Corruption Commission in early 2020 when he was questioned with regards to the embezzlement of millions of Namibian dollars in what has become known as the “Fishrot Scandal”.
After that, De Klerk left Namibia, citing fear for his life, and offered to testify remotely.