Jacob “Kobi” Alexander (centre) talking to his lawyer Louis Du Pisani of Metcalfe Legal Practitioners during an earlier court appearance. Left is his wife, Hanna.

The extradition hearing was delayed until 26 June, as his lawyers Metcalfe Legal Practitioners of Namibia, who are assisted by Peter Hodes and Anton Katz, from neighbouring South Africa, argued that the hearing could not proceed pending the outcome of a High Court challenge filed by Alexander in August last year on the selection of the magistrate who will hear the case.
The prosecution team did not object to the argument. The High Court will hear the challenge on June 16 and 17, said one of Alexander’s lawyers, Louis Du Pisani of Metcalfe Legal Practitioners.
Alexander’s lawyers have asked the High Court to declare as unconstitutional the appointment of Petrus Unengu, the chief of Namibia’s lower courts, as presiding officer at his extradition hearing.
They are requesting that Unengu, who was appointed by Namibia's justice minister to hear the extradition, be removed from the case and that it be assigned to Uaatjo Uanivi, the magistrate who ordered the release of Alexander on bail of N$10 million in 2006.
If successful, this will be the second magistrate whom Alexander has forced to step down from the case, which has been postponed 11 times since his arrest, at US authorities' request after a two-month manhunt, on September 26, 2006 at his home outside Windhoek.
Alexander, 54, an Israeli citizen also known as Kobi, is accused in the US of hatching a scheme to pocket millions of dollars by secretly manipulating stock options.
Comverse's former general counsel and former head of finance both have pleaded guilty in the case, and both said in U.S. Federal court that they conspired with Alexander to backdate options to low points in the stock price and falsify financial statements to conceal the fraud from shareholders.