EIGHT of the men charged in the two pending Fishrot cases about alleged high-level fraud and corruption in the Namibian fishing sector are due to hear in two weeks’ time if they will have one or two trials to go through in the Windhoek High Court.
This is after judge Christie Liebenberg yesterday reserved his judgement on an application by the state to have the two Fishrot cases joined together and heard during a single trial. Liebenberg said his decision would be handed down on 6 October.
Eight of the ten men charged in the two cases are opposing the state’s application.
The only two accused not opposing the bid to separate the two cases are former minister of fisheries and marine resources Bernhard Esau and his son-in-law Tamson Hatuikulipi.
The application is being opposed by former minister of justice and attorney general Sacky Shanghala, former National Fishing Corporation of Namibia (Fishcor) board chairperson James Hatuikulipi, Mike Nghipunya, who was the chief executive officer of Fishcor, Ricardo Gustavo, Pius Mwatelulo, Otneel Shuudifonya, Phillipus Mwapopi and Nigel van Wyk.
Deputy prosecutor general Ed Marondedze argued yesterday that the prosecution would have to present testimony from the same witnesses in both matters now pending in the High Court if they were to proceed to two separate trials.
In both cases, he argued, it is alleged that the accused conspired with the Icelandic Samherji group of fishing companies to enable the group to get access to Namibian fishing quotas, and in both matters the same evidence will be placed before the court to prove that the accused had been involved in a criminal scheme.
It is necessary for the two matters to be joined for one trial for the court to understand the gravity of the case and to get the full picture of how the alleged criminal scheme was set up, Marondedze also argued.
Defence lawyer Trevor Brockerhoff, representing Gustavo, argued that 140 of the 167 state witnesses disclosed in one of the cases, in which Gustavo is not charged at this stage, have nothing to do with the matter in which Gustavo is charged.
Joining the two cases together would have an impact on Gustavo’s right to a speedy trial and would result in him having to sit through trial proceedings which have nothing to do with him, while he is being held in jail, Brockerhoff argued.
Tinashe Chibwana, representing Nigel van Wyk, who is a former employee of Shanghala and James Hatuikulipi, argued along the same lines that Van Wyk is facing the prospect of having to sit through the testimony of 140 witnesses not relevant to the charges he is facing, and that such a situation would prolong his trial.
The court should rather order that Van Wyk’s trial should be separated from that of his co-accused, Chibwana suggested.
On behalf of Shanghala, Hatuikulipi and Mwatelulo, James Diedericks argued that the state chose to charge the accused in two separate cases in the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court, before the matters were transferred to the High Court. The prosecution chose how it wanted to arraign the accused, and it should now be bound to that choice, Diedericks said.
Defence lawyer Milton Engelbrecht, representing Nghipunya, similarly argued against the application to have the cases joined.