OSHAKATI – A 38-year-old man convicted of dealing in cannabis, illegal entry into Namibia through undesignated point and money laundering has pleaded with the Oshakati Regional Court to issue him with a fine.

Kanu Santos Miguel an Angolan national wants mercy from the court to enable him to trace his misplaced children.
Miguel argued in mitigation since his arrest in August 2014, he does not know the whereabouts of his children both in Angola and in Namibia.

Miguel was arrested at a place he was renting in Ongwediva. 
According to the information presented before court, Miguel hid the key of the toilet where the cannabis was and pretended not to know where the key is when the police approached him.
Miguel appeared before Magistrate Leopoldt Hangalo on Thursday.

Speaking between sobs through a translator, Miguel told the court that he would never attempt to bring cannabis into Namibia.

Miguel has a previous conviction of dealing in cannabis.
He told the court the whereabouts of his children is giving him nightmares fearing that his absence and the lack of money to support them would lead them to end up in prison like him.

He told the court that one of his children’s mothers is mentally ill while the other is unemployed.
“The suffering I am enduring has taught me a lesson.  I have not only brought suffering to myself, but my children and my old aged mother,” said Miguel.

His lawyer Mukaya Nyambe asked the court to give his client a fine in respect of count one; dealing in cannabis, and a suspended sentence for count two and three.

State Prosecutor Nelao Ya France submitted to court to sentence the offender to 10 years for dealing with cannabis. Two years for count two and five years for count five, bringing the applied sentence to 17 years.
Ya France said Miguel should have learnt a lesson from the first conviction.
The matter was postponed to February 8 for sentencing.