THE trial of the 10 men charged in the Fishrot fishing quotas fraud and corruption case is scheduled to start in the Windhoek High Court in October this year.
The trial is due to begin on 2 October, prosecutors and defence lawyers involved in the case agreed during a meeting with High Court registrar Elsie Schickerling on Monday.
It was also agreed that the trial would continue from then in two-week-long and three-week-long sessions, interspersed with two-week adjournments, up to 28 June next year.
Acting judge Kobus Miller, to whom the case was assigned for trial in January last year, was informed of the preliminary trial dates when the 10 accused made another appearance in the Windhoek High Court yesterday.
Miller was also informed that the lawyers representing three of the accused in the case – former attorney general and justice minister Sacky Shanghala, James Hatuikulipi and Pius Mwatelulo – on Monday filed an application with the Supreme Court in which they are asking the court to review its decision to not allow them and a co-accused, Ricardo Gustavo, to appeal against Miller’s dismissal of an application for his recusal from the case.
A petition for leave to appeal against Miller’s decision not to step down from the case was declined by three acting appeal judges of the Supreme Court on 26 January.
Shanghala, Hatuikulipi and Mwatelulo are now asking the court to reconsider its decision on the petition in terms of an article of the Constitution that says the Supreme Court may reverse its own decisions.
Some of the defence lawyers involved in the case also indicated to Miller yesterday that their clients need to explore ways to raise funds to pay for their legal representation, or would have to apply for state-funded legal aid.
The accused are considering applying to have their legal expenses paid from their assets that were placed under a Prevention of Organised Crime Act property restraint order in November 2020, the judge was informed.
Miller postponed the case to 14 August for another pretrial hearing to assess if all arrangements for the trial are in place by then.
Gustavo, Shanghala, Hatuikulipi, who is a former board chairperson of the state-owned National Fishing Corporation of Namibia (Fishcor), Mwatelulo, former minister of fisheries and marine resources Bernhard Esau, former Fishcor chief executive Mike Nghipunya, and Esau’s son-in-law Tamson Hatuikulipi are facing charges with Otneel Shuudifonya, Phillipus Mwapopi and Nigel van Wyk, as well as two companies, 12 close corporations and four trusts represented by individual accused.
They are due to be prosecuted on 42 criminal charges, including counts of fraud, bribery, corruption, racketeering, money laundering and tax evasion.
The state is alleging that the accused acted together to devise a scheme in which they benefited financially from arrangements to give the Icelandic-owned fishing company group Samherji access to Namibian fishing quotas, through Fishcor and the company Namgomar Pesca Namibia, of which Gustavo was the sole director and an employee.
According to the state’s allegations against the accused, tens of millions of Namibia dollars in quota usage fees paid by the Samherji group of companies were channelled to the individual accused and corporate entities and trusts represented by them, whereas the fishing quotas to which Samherji had gained access had supposedly been allocated “for governmental objectives in the public interest”.
All of the 10 accused are being held in custody.