The judge appointed to preside over the Fishrot fraud, corruption and racketeering trial says he will give a ruling on Friday about when the stalled plea proceedings should continue.
Acting judge Moses Chinhengo said this at the end of proceedings before him in the High Court at Windhoek Correctional Facility yesterday.
During the proceedings, Chinhengo was informed that defence lawyer Mbanga Siyomunji has indicated he would again be available for the trial only by 19 May 2025.
Siyomunji is representing Tamson ‘Fitty’ Hatuikulipi and Nigel van Wyk – two of the 10 individual accused charged in the matter.
Defence lawyer Milton Engelbrecht, who is representing former National Fishing Corporation of Namibia (Fishcor) chief executive Mike Nghipunya, Otneel Shuudifonya and Phillipus Mwapopi, told the judge his diary is full for the remainder of this year and he will be available for trial proceedings from 17 February.
His three clients are willing to let plea proceedings in the matter continue in his absence, Engelbrecht added.
Deputy prosecutor general Ed Marondedze told the judge the state is available to continue with trial proceedings at any given date.
The state has witnesses who have been waiting to testify since the case was transferred to the High Court in 2021, Marondedze said.
He also said a continued delay in proceedings is an inconvenience to the state, witnesses and the nation at large who want to see the matter finalised and is prejudicing them.
Former fisheries and marine resources minister Bernhard Esau, who is one of the accused without legal representation at this stage, told the judge he is in a position to continue with plea proceedings.
He has been in custody for five years already and trial proceedings should resume as soon as possible, Esau said.
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.
Chinhengo has so far recorded pleas on four of the 42 charges faced by the 10 individual 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 the Icelandic fishing company group Samherji get access to Namibian fishing quotas that were supposed to have been allocated for “governmental objectives”.
Chinhengo directed on Thursday last week that the taking of pleas should continue and remarked that the accused not represented by defence lawyers at this stage should continue without legal representation in the meantime.
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