Africa-Press – Namibia. ANTI-CORRUPTION Commission investigator Andreas Kanyangela is due to return to the witness stand for further cross-examination when the bail hearing of six of the men charged in the Fishrot fraud and corruption case continues in the Windhoek High Court in two weeks’ time.
The hearing is scheduled to resume on 21 February, after it was postponed by judge Shafimana Ueitele on Friday.
Kanyangela has already been testifying on eight of the 18 days of court proceedings in the bail hearing, which started in November last year and continued over the past two weeks.
South African senior counsel Vas Soni is expected to continue with his cross-examination of Kanyangela when the matter proceeds.
Soni is leading a team of lawyers representing former attorney general and minister of justice Sacky Shanghala, former Investec Asset Management Namibia managing director James Hatuikulipi and a nephew of Hatuikulipi, Pius Mwatelulo.
So far, during his questioning of Kanyangela–whom he has accused of being “a most uncooperative witness”, Soni has focused mostly on the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC)’s powers to investigate, while questioning which aspects of the case the anti-graft body investigated.
Shanghala, Hatuikulipi and Mwatelulo are claiming that the ACC’s investigation of the Fishrot case was unlawful because the commission also investigated offences under the Prevention of Organised Crime Act (Poca). According to them, only police officers authorised in writing by the inspector general of the Namibian Police may investigate offences under Poca, such as racketeering and money laundering.
Kanyangela has told the court he did not investigate the case under Poca, but investigated offences under the Anti-Corruption Act.
The Anti-Corruption Act, he said, authorises the ACC not only to investigate alleged corrupt practices, but also to gather evidence of other offences and to refer that evidence to the prosecutor general.
He said police officers assisted with the investigation as well, by carrying out searches with ACC investigators, arresting the accused in the case, recording warning statements from the accused after their arrest, identifying and seizing assets of the accused, and getting documents in respect of those assets.
Kanyangela added on Friday that the matter which was being investigated was of a complex nature and aspects of the investigation could not be separated from each other.
“It’s money that we are investigating, and the conduct of the accused persons,” he said. “What we were following is the benefit of these persons and how the benefit was utilised, and it was based on all the documents or statements we obtained that the prosecutor general made a decision and drew up charges as they are appearing in the indictment.”
Most of the investigations were carried out by the ACC, with assistance from the auditing firm Deloitte and also the Ministry of Finance, which investigated alleged tax evasion by the accused, Kanyangela said.
“And I still stick to saying the investigation was done on corrupt practices and other offences,” he added.
Shanghala, Hatuikulipi, Mwatelulo, former National Fishing Corporation of Namibia chief executive Mike Nghipunya, Otneel Shuudifonya and Phillipus Mwapopi are the applicants in the bail hearing before Ueitele.
They are facing various charges – including counts of fraud, racketeering, money laundering and charges under the Anti-Corruption Act – in connection with allegations that they had been involved in a scheme in which Namibian fishing quotas, which were supposedly allocated for governmental objectives, ended up being used for their own benefit.
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