Former attorney general and justice minister Sacky Shanghala and two of his co-accused in the Fishrot fraud, corruption and racketeering case want their trial kept on hold until they have received a host of additional documents from the state.
Shanghala and his co-accused James Hatuikulipi and Pius Mwatelulo on Friday filed an application in which they are asking the judge now dealing with the Fishrot case, acting judge Marilize du Plessis, to direct the state to provide a range of documents to them.
As a result of the application, Du Plessis yesterday postponed the matter to tomorrow, by when the state should indicate to the court if it will be opposing the new application.
During an appearance by the 10 individuals charged in the case in the High Court at Windhoek Correctional Facility yesterday, deputy prosecutor general Ed Marondedze said Shanghala, Hatuikulipi and Mwatelulo are relying on the wrong section of the Criminal Procedure Act for their application.
Marondedze also said the state is ready for their trial to proceed.
However, Shanghala, Hatuikulipi and Mwatelulo are asking the judge to adjourn proceedings in their case to enable the documentation they are requesting to be delivered to them.
Du Plessis also remarked yesterday that the trial cannot proceed until a judgement on another High Court application by Shanghala, Hatuikulipi and Mwatelulo has been delivered.
That judgement, on an application in which the appointment of acting judge Moses Chinhengo as an acting judge of the High Court is being challenged, is scheduled to be delivered on 19 August.
In that application, Shanghala, Hatuikulipi and Mwatelulo are also asking the court to set aside all of the decisions made by Chinhengo during the time he presided over court proceedings in the Fishrot case from September 2023 to February this year.
In the application filed by the three accused on Friday last week, they are requesting the court to direct the state to furnish to them an updated and corrected indictment containing the charges against them, and also at least two printed copies of the case docket previously disclosed to them.
According to Shanghala, the contents of the docket disclosed to them in April 2021, June 2022, June 2023 and February 2024 consist of about 165 000 pages.
They are also asking the court to order the state to disclose bilateral agreements between Namibia and Iceland, Norway and the United Arab Emirates in terms of the International Co-operation in Criminal Matters Act to them, and to disclose responses obtained from those countries as a result of mutual legal assistance requests made by Namibia.
In addition to that, Shanghala, Hatuikulipi and Mwatelulo want the court to direct the state to furnish to them information on communication between the Anti-Corruption Commission and investigators of their case.
They are further requesting the court to direct the state to provide information to them on meetings held by an integrated investigation task force that carried out an investigation that resulted in the case in which they are charged. That information should include minutes of meetings held by the task force.
The non-disclosure of the information they are asking for “amounts to an infringement on the right to adequately prepare for trial (and to be able to mount a credible defence against the preferred charges)”, Shanghala says in a sworn statement filed at the court.
“Our courts have the duty to not only respect and uphold the fundamental right to a fair trial; courts must also enforce such a right,” Shanghala also says in his affidavit.
He says the court would have to adjourn proceedings if it makes an order as requested from it.
That would be to enable him, Hatuikulipi and Shanghala to have the requested documents delivered to them, he says, and so they can adequately prepare for their trial by going through such material they may require to bring further pretrial applications.
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