PG says ACC needs more time for Fishrot probe

The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) is still carrying out investigations before a request can be made for the extradition of Icelandic citizens alleged to have been involved in the Fishrot fishing quotas fraud and corruption case, prosecutor general (PG) Martha Imalwa says in an affidavit filed at the Windhoek High Court on Friday.

A “number of lines of inquiry” being pursued by ACC investigators have contributed to a delay in finalising an extradition request that is to be submitted to the government of Iceland, Imalwa says in the affidavit, in which she gives the court an update on the status of the criminal investigation and extradition proceedings in the Fishrot case.

Imalwa’s affidavit is filed in a Prevention of Organised Crime Act case in which the PG has obtained an assets restraint order applying to assets of various people and corporate entities linked to the Fishrot case.

The corporate entities include the Icelandic-owned companies Esja Holding, Mermaria Seafood, Saga Seafood, Heinaste Investments Namibia, Saga Investments and Esja Investments.

In terms of an interim assets restraint order granted by High Court judge Orben Sibeya in November 2020, assets including various bank accounts of the companies, shareholding in other companies and an immovable property in Windhoek have in effect been frozen and placed under the control of curators appointed by the court.

Imalwa previously charged Esja Holding, Mermaria Seafood, Saga Seafood, Esja Investments and Heinaste Investments Namibia, and also Icelandic citizens Adalsteinn Helgason, Egill Helgi Árnason and Ingvar Júlíusson, as representatives of the companies, in connection with their alleged involvement in corruption in Namibia’s fishing sector.

However, with the Icelandic citizens not present when other accused in the Fishrot case made a first pretrial appearance in the Windhoek High Court in April 2021, the state was directed to remove their names from the indictment in the matter.

Imalwa says in her affidavit there have been “some unfortunate delays” in finalising a formal request for the extradition of Helgason, Árnason and Júlíusson.

She says this is because further investigations into the roles of Esja Holding, Mermaria Seafood, Saga Seafood, Heinaste Investments Namibia, Saga Investments and Esja Investments in the alleged corrupt scheme in which the accused in the Fishrot case were involved was necessary, and those investigations are still not completed.

The actual financial prejudice suffered by Namibian state coffers as a result of the alleged corrupt use of Namibian fishing quotas by the accused in the Fishrot case is a particular matter that had to be investigated, Imalwa says.

She also says the ACC is waiting for further evidence from the Namibia Revenue Agency (Namra) on value-added tax declarations by the Icelandic-owned companies for the years 2012 to 2015, 2019 and 2020, and that it is likely to take up to four and a half months for that part of the investigation to be concluded.

An investigation into suspected income tax offences by the six companies must still be carried out as well, Imalwa says, remarking: “The preliminary findings with regard to VAT are a reflection that their income tax declarations were also falsified.”

Only once the evidence she has referred to has been obtained, finally evaluated and incorporated into the state’s case, can an affidavit to accompany an extradition request be finalised, she says as well.

Júlíusson has denied, in an affidavit filed at the High Court on behalf of the six companies during 2021, that there is evidence to underpin allegations that the Icelandic-owned companies participated in an alleged bribery scheme in Namibia.

In his affidavit, Júlíusson smeared former Samherji fishing company group employee Jóhannes Stefánsson, who as a whistleblower reported the Fishrot case to the ACC, as “a self-confessed criminal” and claims Stefánsson will not come to Namibia to testify in the trial of the Fishrot accused.

Júlíusson also said the PG has failed to give any evidence to the court to show that he, Helgason and Árnason will be criminally charged in Namibia.

They will oppose any extradition application “because we are innocent, not only presumed so, but actually innocent”, Júlíusson said in his affidavit.