N$52m cannabis farm accused loses bail appeal

A bail appeal by a South African citizen facing criminal charges after the discovery of a cannabis plantation with an estimated value of N$52 million at a farm in the Okahandja district was refused in the Windhoek High Court yesterday.

With Armand Schultz’s appeal against being refused bail in the Okahandja Magistrate’s Court in March this year, it was not shown that the magistrate who turned down his application to be granted bail made a wrong decision, judge Claudia Claasen concluded in the High Court’s appeal judgement. “Therefore, the appeal court cannot interfere with that decision,” Claasen stated.

Schultz (28) and a co-accused, farm owner David van der Linden (43), were charged with dealing in or possessing cannabis valued at about N$52.2 million and disguising the unlawful origin of property after the police discovered a dagga plantation at farm Eendrag, situated in the Hochfeld area north-east of Okahandja, near the end of last May.

Schultz, who is a South African citizen and is married to a Namibian, was employed at Eendrag at the time of his arrest nearly 14 months ago.