CHAPTER 34
SENTENCE

Imposition and conversion of correctional supervision

308. (1) Punishment may only be imposed under section 307(1)(d) -

(a) after a report of a probation officer or a social worker has been placed before the court; and
(b) for a fixed period not exceeding three years.

(2) (a) A court, whether differently constituted or not, that has imposed a punishment referred to in subsection (1) on a person, may at any time, if it is found from a motivated recommendation by a probation officer or a social worker that that person is not fit to be subject to correctional supervision, reconsider that punishment and impose any other proper punishment.

(b) On receipt of the motivated recommendation referred to in paragraph (a), the registrar or the clerk of the court in question must, after consultation with the prosecutor, set the matter down for a specific date on the roll of the court in question.

(c) The registrar or the clerk of the court in question must for the purposes of the reconsideration of the sentence in accordance with this subsection -
(i) within a reasonable time before the date referred to in paragraph (b),
submit the case record to the judge or magistrate who imposed the sentence or, if he or she is not available, any other judge or magistrate of the same court, together with the motivated recommendation received under that paragraph ; and
(ii) inform the probation officer or social worker in writing of the date for which the matter has been set down for reconsideration of the sentence.

(d) When a court reconsiders a sentence under this subsection, it has the same powers as it would have had if it were considering sentence after conviction of a person, and the procedure adopted at such proceedings applies with the necessary changes during such reconsideration.

Punishment of grave breaches of Conventions and Protocol I
2. (5) If a court is satisfied that substantial and compelling circumstances exist which justify the imposition of a lesser sentence than the sentence prescribed in subsection (4)(a), it must enter those circumstances on the record of the proceedings and may thereupon impose such lesser sentence.

Reduction of sentence and custody for protected prisoners of war and internees
7. (1) Notwithstanding anything to the contrary in any other law contained, when a protected prisoner of war or a protected internee is convicted of an offence and sentenced to a term of imprisonment, the court must, in fixing the term of imprisonment in respect of the offence, deduct from the term which it would otherwise have fixed any period during which the convicted person was in custody in connection with that offence, either on remand or after committal for trial (including the period of the trial), before the day on which the sentence imposed on the convicted person takes effect.

(2) The Minister of Justice may, where he or she is satisfied that a protected prisoner of war accused of an offence has been in custody in connection with that offence, either on remand or after committal for trial (including the period of the trial), in a place other than a camp or place in which protected prisoners of war are detained, for an aggregate period of not less than three months, direct that such prisoner must be transferred from that custody to the custody of an officer of the Namibian Defence Force and thereafter remain in military custody at a camp or place in which protected prisoners of war are detained, and be brought before the court at the time appointed by the remand or committal order.