The judge to whom the Fishrot fishing quotas fraud, corruption and racketeering case has been assigned wants the matter to proceed to trial in the first week of December.
The Fishrot trial should formally start with plea proceedings on 5 December, acting judge Moses Chinhengo directed at the end of the latest pretrial hearing for the 10 men charged in the case in the High Court at Windhoek Correctional Facility yesterday.
After lengthy exchanges with the defence lawyers involved in the case, Chinhengo noted that the state’s current indictment in the matter was served on the accused in October 2021, and that the accused and their defence lawyers were supposed to prepare for a trial from then on.
He also recorded that, according to the state, it is ready for the trial to start, and that six of the 10 accused individuals have also indicated to the court that they are “fairly ready” to proceed with a trial.
Chinhengo said he wants the trial to formally start with the taking of the pleas of the 10 accused and 18 corporate entities and trusts represented by them.
Any applications the accused want to make to the court can be dealt with after that point, he added.
During the hearing yesterday, defence lawyer Lucius Murorua told the judge his clients – former attorney general and justice minister Sacky Shanghala, James Hatuikulipi and Pius Mwatelulo – still have to get funds to pay for their legal representation.
Hatuikulipi is applying to have funds released from his assets that have been placed under a property restraint order, Shanghala has requested the Office of the Attorney General to pay for his legal representation, and Mwatelulo has applied for state-funded legal aid, Murorua said.
He added that once funding for legal representation for Shanghala, Hatuikulipi and Mwatelulo is available, their legal team would need about six weeks to prepare for their trial.
They would then be ready for the trial to start by June, Murorua said.
He also told the judge his clients do not have adequate facilities in Windhoek Correctional Facility, where they are being held in custody, to prepare for their trial.
However, they would be in a position to prepare for the trial if they are released on bail, Murorua said.
“All that we’re asking is that the trial be held – but a fair trial, not a microwave trial […] where we are basically set up to be fried,” he said.
Former minister of fisheries and marine resources Bernhard Esau’s defence lawyer, Florian Beukes, informed Chinhengo that Esau is also asking the attorney general’s office to cover his legal costs and applying to have funds released from his assets that are under a property restraint order.
He has been representing Esau without payment for more than two years, and in that time has been focusing on bail applications and other legal proceedings, and has not yet taken instructions from Esau on the pleas he intends to give to the charges he is facing, Beukes said.
One of the accused, Ricardo Gustavo, informed the court he is now without legal representation, as his former legal representative, Trevor Brockerhoff, is not willing to continue to represent him unless he is paid for his work.
Gustavo reminded the judge that he was granted bail in December 2021.
A year later, though, the Supreme Court overturned the judgement in which he was granted bail, and he has been held in custody since then, he recounted.
This has placed him in a situation in which he is not able to generate an income to pay for his legal representation, and he is now forced to represent himself, Gustavo said.
“Anticipatory punishment now forms part of the judicial arsenal,” Gustavo remarked.
“I believe we are mocking the foresight of the architects of our Constitution by keeping me in custody,” he also said.
While he is ready to proceed to trial, he wants to be allowed to have a computer, printer and internet access in his prison cell to enable him to prepare for the trial, he added.
Defence lawyers Milton Engelbrecht, representing former National Fishing Corporation of Namibia chief executive Mike Nghipunya,
Otneel Shuudifonya and Phillipus Mwapopi, and Mbanga Siyomunji, representing Tamson Hatuikulipi and Nigel van Wyk, informed the judge they are ready for the trial to start.
All of the accused are being held in custody.
