Namibia High Court removes three in the fishrot case, pending extradition
Namibian high court reversed prosecutor general decision to charge three foreign nationals in the Fishrot case, pending extradition.
RUSTENBURG, April 26 (ANA) – The Windhoek High Court in Namibia has removed three foreign nationals from the charge sheet in the multi-million-dollar fisheries bribery scandal, according to local media reports on Monday.
High court Judge Christie Liebenberg reversed the decision of Prosecutor General Martha Imalwa to list three Samherji executives – who are currently in Iceland – as accused in the case, local newspaper Informante reported.
The three are Helgason Adelsteinn, the managing director of Samherji’s Katla Seafood; Ingvar Juliusson, Samherji’s chief accounting officer; and Egil Arnason, managing director of Esja.
The judge found that until the three were extradited to Namibia, formerly charged and have appeared before the lower courts, they would not be recognised as accused in the matter.
They were mentioned as accused in the Fishrot case, alongside their different companies.
Prosecutor advocate Ed Marondedze said the State has already initiated extradition proceedings.
The other accused in the Fishrot case are 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.
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.
They are facing charges ranging from racketeering, money laundering, corruption, fraud, and tax evasion.
Namibian lawyer Maren de Klerk, who was currently in South Africa, where he was reported to have checked himself into a mental hospital, is also implicated in the case.
His trust account was allegedly used to receive and disburse funds.
Icelandic fishing giant Samherji has denied paying bribes or kickbacks in Namibia.
An internal investigation, commissioned by the board of the company has revealed that Namibian companies affiliated with paid the company market prices for quotas they leased from their partners in the Namibian fisheries industry.
The pre-trial hearing was expected to resume on May 20.
– African News Agency (ANA); Editing by Devereaux Morkel
