Fishrot accused Sacky Shanghala sues ACC and prosecutor general to stop prosecution

Former justice minister and attorney general Sacky Shanghala and three of his co-accused in the Fishrot fraud, corruption and racketeering case have launched a case in the Windhoek High Court in which they are asking the court to make wide-ranging orders to set aside investigations carried out in the case.

Shanghala, James Hatuikulipi, Pius Mwatelulo and Otneel Shuudifonya, who are charged in the Fishrot case, and seven close corporations, three trusts and a company controlled by them and also charged in the matter, filed an application against 33 respondents in the Windhoek High Court on Friday last week.

The respondents include the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), the prosecutor general, the prime minister, the auditing firm Deloitte, which was involved in the investigation of the Fishrot case, and their other co-accused in their criminal case. Shanghala, Hatuikulipi, Mwatelulo, Shuudifonya and the other applicants are asking the court to restrain the prosecutor general from continuing to prosecute them in their criminal case until the application that they filed on Friday has been decided.

They are also applying for an interdict permanently stopping their prosecution in the Fishrot case “based on any evidential information obtained and gathered from the unconstitutional, unlawful, unprocedural and ultra vires investigations” allegedly conducted by the ACC. The ACC’s investigations were done contrary to provisions of Namibia’s Constitution, the Anti-Corruption Act, the Prevention of Organised Crime Act and the International Cooperation in Criminal Matters Act, they are claiming.

In the application, they are asking the court to make a wide range of declarations and to review and set aside numerous actions taken during the investigation of the Fishrot case.

They are also requesting the court to issue an interdict that would prohibit the use of a range of evidence gathered during the investigation, including evidence obtained through the use of search warrants issued by magistrates in Windhoek and at Gobabis and evidence obtained by Deloitte during its involvement in the investigation.

The High Court should declare that investigations conducted by the ACC and which led to the prosecution of the accused charged in the Fishrot case “were not conducted in an independent and impartial manner” in accordance with the United Nations Convention against Corruption, the Constitution and the Anti-Corruption Act, Shanghala and the other applicants are asking.

They also want the court to declare that the prosecutor general’s involvement in prosecutor-guided investigations carried out by the ACC undermined the independence and impartiality of the investigations and that the ACC’s investigations were not conducted in compliance with provisions of the Anti-Corruption Act.

Shanghala and the other applicants are further asking the court to review and set aside the appointment of Deloitte as an investigator by the ACC, to prohibit the use of information obtained from outside Namibia in the absence of agreements on bilateral cooperation in criminal matters, and to prohibit the use of information obtained from Fishrot whistleblower Jóhannes Stefánsson and other witnesses who allegedly received indemnity from prosecution from the ACC.

Shanghala and the other applicants have given the respondents 15 days from the date when the application is served on them to indicate whether they would be opposing the application.

If the application is unopposed, the court will be asked to issue an order on 16 February. The accused in the Fishrot case have to make their next court appearance in their criminal matter on 25 November.

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