Fishrot accused in court for pre-trial hearing
Accused in the multi million dollars fish scandal in Namibia heads to the Windhoek High Court for pre-trial.
RUSTENBURG, April 22 (ANA) – Two former Namibian cabinet ministers implicated in the multi million dollar fish scandal and their co-accused are expected to appear in the Windhoek High Court on Thursday for the pre-trial conference.
The pre-trial conference would set the trial date and appoint a judge to preside over the case.
Former fisheries minister Bernard Esau, former justice minister Sakeus Shanghala, former Investec Asset management managing director James Hatuikulipi, former Fishcor CEO Mike Nghipunya, former manager at Investec Ricardo Gustavo, businessman Tamson Hatuikulipi and Pius Mwatelula will make their first official appearance in the high court after Prosecutor General Martha Imalwa decided they should be tried in the high court, local newspaper Informante reported on Wednesday.
Imalwa had also decided to prosecute lawyer Maren de Klerk, who was currently in South Africa, where he was reported to have checked himself into a mental hospital.
De Klerk’s trust account was allegedly used to receive and disburse funds.
They are facing charges ranging from racketeering, money laundering, corruption, fraud, and tax evasion.
They have been implicated in a scheme in which Icelandic companies allegedly paid them at least US$7 million to get access to Namibian fishing quotas.
The Icelandic fish and fishing processing company Samherij has denied that any of it’s affiliated companies paid kickbacks to Namibia.
The State alleges they solicited, accepted or agreed to accept payments totalling not less than US$7 million from the Icelandic-owned companies Mermaria Seafood Namibia and Esja Seafood from 2014 to 2019 to secure a continuous allocation of fishing quotas for the two companies.
Nigel van Wyk, an employee of Shanghala, is also expected to appear alongside them. He was arrested for allegedly denying the police entry into Shanghala’s farm.
Van Wyk is also facing additional charges of unlawful possession of ammunition, defeating the course of justice and assault of a police officer.
– African News Agency (ANA); Editing by Devereaux Morkel
