Fishrot trial set to continue despite legal challenges

Plea proceedings in the Fishrot fraud, corruption and racketeering trial should continue, acting judge Moses Chinhengo has directed.

In a judgement delivered in the High Court at Windhoek Correctional Facility on Tuesday, Chinhengo said four of the accused men in the Fishrot trial have been given reasonable time to secure funds for defence lawyers, and if they have not managed to get legal representation in this time they would have to continue without the assistance of defence lawyers.

“A time must surely arrive, and it has, when the trial must proceed with the applicants acting for themselves,” Chinhengo said.

He made the remark in a judgement in which he dismissed an application for the trial to be split into two separate trials.

Former minister of justice and attorney general Sacky Shanghala and three other accused in the Fishrot case – James Hatuikulipi, Ricardo Gustavo and Pius Mwatelulo – applied for a separation of trials, claiming they need more time to make efforts to get legal representation for themselves while the trial of their co-accused, who are represented by defence lawyers, can then continue separately.

Chinhengo noted in his judgement that if Shanghala, Hatuikulipi, Gustavo and Mwatelulo cannot secure legal representation, they can bring an application in the High Court to have the Directorate of Legal Aid ordered to provide state-funded legal aid to them.

They have chosen not to pursue such an application, though.

The four accused have had time since early December last year to make arrangements for legal representation, but they have instead been preoccupied with other, unsuccessful applications in the High Court and failed petitions to the Supreme Court during the past year, Chinhengo remarked.

He said: “The applicants are mistaken that this court should have specifically postponed the trial for the purpose of giving them the opportunity to secure legal representation of their choice.”

The other applications that have been pursued over the past year “do not absolve them from having to make arrangements for legal representation”, Chinhengo also said.

The charges against the accused show there is “an interconnection of transactions, actions, individuals and legal entities in the alleged commission of the offences”, and the state is alleging that the accused in general acted together to commit the offences, the judge said.

Plea proceedings in the matter must now continue, Chinhengo said, adding that when the trial is postponed after that it would give the unrepresented accused more time to make arrangements for legal representation.

The plea proceedings started in early December last year and have been on hold since an ultimately unsuccessful application for Chinhengo to step down from the case interrupted the taking of pleas on 13 December last year.

At the end of his judgement, Chinhengo directed the prosecutors, defence lawyers and unrepresented accused to have a discussion to agree on what date the plea proceedings can continue, and to report back to him on that issue tomorrow.

He said he wants the taking of pleas to be completed by around 10 December, and that the trial can be postponed after that for the hearing of evidence to start.

Chinhengo has so far recorded pleas on four of the 42 charges faced by the 10 individuals accused in the matter.

Pleas of not guilty were noted on all four charges.

The charges are based on allegations that the accused committed fraud, corruption, racketeering and other offences between December 2011 and November 2019, by helping Icelandic fishing company group Samherji get access to Namibian fishing quotas.

The first six accused charged in connection with the Fishrot scandal – Shanghala, Hatuikulipi, Gustavo, Mwatelulo, former minister of fisheries and marine resources Bernhard Esau and his son-in-law Tamson Hatuikulipi – were arrested five years ago, on 27 November 2019.

They have been held in custody since then.