Judge refuses Fishrot assets restraint order against Icelanders

A HIGH Court judge has refused to issue a Prevention of Organised Crime Act restraint order in respect of assets under the control of Icelandic directors of companies involved in the Fishrot fishing quotas scandal.

Judge Orben Sibeya turned down an application by prosecutor general Martha Imalwa to have six Icelandic-owned companies’ assets connected to the Fishrot case placed under a restraint order in a judgement delivered in the Windhoek High Court on Monday.

Sibeya found that Imalwa failed to satisfy the court that Icelandic citizens Adalsteinn Helgason, Egill Helgi Árnason and Ingvar Júlíusson, as representatives of six companies involved in the Fishrot case about the alleged corrupt use of Namibian fishing quotas, are to be charged in Namibia in connection with the case.

In terms of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act, the prosecutor general must show to the High Court that defendants in an application for an asset restraint order will be criminally charged in Namibia and that there are reasonable grounds to believe an order for the confiscation of assets will be made against them at the end of a criminal trial.

The six companies are Esja Holding, Mermaria Seafood, Saga Seafood, Heinaste Investments Namibia, Saga Investments and Esja Investments.

Helgason, Árnason, Júlíusson, Esja Holding, Mermaria Seafood, Saga Seafood, Esja Investments and Heinaste Investments Namibia, represented by Helgason, Árnason and Júlíusson, were previously charged in the Fishrot case.

However, in April 2021, a judge dealing with the criminal case directed the state to remove the names of the three Icelanders and the companies from the indictment in the matter because Helgason, Árnason and Júlíusson were not present in Namibia to appear in court.

Imalwa informed the court in the Prevention of Organised Crime Act case before Sibeya that she intended to request the extradition of Helgason, Árnason and Júlíusson so that they could be prosecuted in Namibia.

Sibeya noted that Imalwa obtained an asset restraint order against six other individuals charged in the Fishrot case and a number of companies, close corporations and trusts that were under their control in November 2020.

The length of time that had passed since then without extradition proceedings being initiated against Helgason, Árnason and Júlíusson “leaves more questions than answers”, Sibeya remarked.

With no clarity about when an extradition process would start, it cannot be said that Helgason, Árnason and Júlíusson are to be charged in Namibia and that their prosecution is imminent, Sibeya said.

The result of that finding, he added, was that Imalwa failed to meet a key requirement in the Prevention of Organised Crime Act for a restraint order to be issued by the court.