An attempt to get High Court acting judge Marilize du Plessis to step down from the Fishrot fraud, corruption and racketeering case will be strongly opposed by the first accused in the matter.
Defence lawyer Ileni Gebhardt, who is representing Ricardo Gustavo and the company Namgomar Pesca Namibia in the Fishrot case, informed Du Plessis in the High Court at Windhoek Correctional Facility yesterday that Gustavo and the company will “oppose vehemently” an application for the judge’s recusal from the case.
Gebhardt said the recusal application, which was filed by two of the accused in the matter, former attorney general and justice minister Sacky Shanghala and James Hatuikulipi, last Tuesday, has not been served on her yet.
Du Plessis is scheduled to hear arguments on the application for her recusal on 9 March.
During court proceedings before Du Plessis yesterday, defence lawyer Joas Neemwatya, who is representing Otneel Shuudifonya, raised a complaint about the availability of consultation rooms at Windhoek Correctional Facility, where nine of the accused in the case are held in custody.
Neemwatya said only two consultation rooms are available and they are often occupied by other lawyers and their clients.
The officer in charge of Windhoek Correctional Facility, deputy commissioner Oscar Numwa, told the judge facilities for consultations can be made available when prior arrangements are made by lawyers wishing to consult their clients in the prison.
Du Plessis pointed out to Numwa that the Correctional Service Act states that someone being detained in a correctional facility must be afforded adequate facilities for the preparation and presentation of their defence, and the officer in charge of a facility must ensure that a detained person’s legal representative has adequate facilities to privately interview the detained person.
She also suggested to Numwa that he and defence lawyers involved in the Fishrot case should meet to find a solution for problems being experienced with consultations between the lawyers and their clients in the prison.
In the recusal application filed by Shanghala and Hatuikulipi, they are asking Du Plessis to step down from hearing and presiding over their criminal case.
Shanghala alleges in a sworn statement filed at the court that a remark made by Du Plessis during a court appearance of the accused in August last year indicated that in her view previous applications brought by the accused have delayed their trial.
Remarks made by Du Plessis in January this year in a judgement on applications for a postponement of the case also showed that she was biased, Shanghala is claiming.
He is making that allegation in connection with a remark by Du Plessis that “application after application have been brought before the court”, that none of the applications had been found to have any merit, and that it was difficult to find “that there is not, at least to a degree, a tactical delaying strategy at play from the side of specifically accused two [Hatuikulipi], three [Shanghala] and six [Pius Mwatelulo]”.
The state is opposing the recusal application.
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