Africa-Press – Namibia. SIX Icelandic-owned companies are trying to defeat every attempt to have some of their directors prosecuted because of their involvement in large-scale fraud and corruption in Namibia’s fishing sector, a lawyer representing the prosecutor general argued in the Windhoek High Court yesterday.
Directors of the companies Esja Holding, Mermaria Seafood Namibia, Saga Seafood, Heinaste Investments (Namibia), Saga Investment and Esja Investment are declaring that they will “fight tooth and nail” to avoid being sent to Namibia to face charges
in the Fishrot corruption and fraud case, in which prosecutor general Martha Imalwa wants to charge and prosecute them, South African senior counsel Wim Trengove said in arguments heard by judge Orben Sibeya.
Trengove said at the same time that they want to stay away from the Namibian justice system, the companies want to use the High Court for their benefit, by asking the court to allow them to cross-examine Imalwa and the Fishrot scandal whistleblower Jóhannes Stefánsson in the Prevention of Organised Crime Act case in which assets linked to the companies and six of the men accused in the case have been placed under a provisional restraint order.
This attempt by the companies is evidence of their arrogance, Trengove charged. The companies have informed the court they want to question Imalwa about her intention to have Icelanders Adalsteinn Helgason, Egill Helgi Árnason and Ingvar Júlíusson extradited to Namibia and to prosecute them.
Imalwa decided early last year to charge Helgason, Árnason and Júlíusson in their personal capacities and also as representatives of Esja Holding, Mermaria Seafood Namibia, Saga Seafood, Esja Investment and Heinaste Investments (Namibia).
In April last year, when the three Icelanders were not present when the other accused in the Fishrot case made their first pretrial appearance in the High Court, judge Christie Liebenberg directed that their names should be removed from the indictment in the matter.
The companies, which are part of the Icelandic Samherji group of fishing companies, say Imalwa knows that the Icelandic prosecution authorities refused her extradition request in February last year already. Imalwa is disputing that claim.
The companies also want to be allowed to question Stefánsson to establish if he will be testifying in the Fishrot trial, or will stay away from Namibia and from the witness stand.
Senior counsel Raymond Heathcote, representing the Icelandic companies, said during his address to the judge yesterday that the companies’ three directors are lawfully resisting extradition, because they are innocent.
He said the companies’ application is not to compel Imalwa and Stefánsson to testify in the Prevention of Organised Crime Act (Poca) matter, but to be allowed to cross-examine them if they agree to give oral testimony.
Trengove described the application as “truly extraordinary”. He argued that what the companies want is to have a “mini trial” in which they will be allowed to cross-examine the state’s main witness in the Fishrot case. There is no justification to have the Poca case referred for oral evidence to be heard, Trengove argued.
He said in terms of Poca, if the prosecutor general has on documents not made out a case for a property restraint order to be issued, she would simply fail in her application for such an order, and that would not be a reason to refer the matter to oral evidence.
In written arguments filed with the court, Trengove also noted that “the foreigners” are making “determined efforts to defeat any attempt to bring them to book in Namibia”.
“They will skulk in their foreign hideaways and have their lawyers cross-examine the PG and Mr Stefánsson,” he said.
“But they should not be allowed to refuse to submit to the jurisdiction of this court and yet invoke its processes to undermine the case against them.” After hearing the arguments, Sibeya said he would deliver his judgement on the application on 17 March.
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