Multimillionaire fails to stop murder trial

One of the wealthiest men in Namibia has lost a Supreme Court appeal intended to scupper his own trial in a criminal case. Harvey Boulter, facing murder and other charges, had put his version of events to the High Court before the case began, saying there was no direct evidence he had committed the crimes, and the charges against him should either be dropped or he should be charged with culpable homicide. When that argument failed he took the same plea to the Supreme Court, again challenging the decision of the prosecutor that he should be tried. Now that court has given its response: the decision of the prosecutor to go ahead with a prosecution was ‘clearly not irrational’ as there was ‘sufficient evidence to provide reasonable prospects of a conviction’. Further, there were clear, factual conflicts (in the different versions of what happened) that could only be resolved through oral evidence. Carmel Rickard, in her A Matter of Justice column, looks at the new judgment and says it is to be welcomed, particularly since it might otherwise have seemed that the super-wealthy could even dictate whether they would have to face justice in Namibia.