First Fishrot case bail ruling due next week

FORMER Investec Asset Management Namibia client director Ricardo Gustavo, who is one of the six men charged in the Fishrot fishing quotas corruption case, is due to hear on 3 June if his application to be granted bail after six months in custody has been successful.

Magistrate Johannes Shuuveni postponed the delivery of his ruling on Gustavo's application to be granted bail to Wednesday next week after hearing closing arguments from defence lawyer Trevor Brockerhoff and public prosecutor Cliff Lutibezi in the Windhoek Magistrate's Court yesterday.

The magistrate's ruling will be the first to be delivered on a bail application by any of the men arrested and charged near the end of November last year in connection with alleged large-scale corruption in Namibia's fishing industry.

Brockerhoff argued that the state failed to prove Gustavo would abscond or interfere with the investigation of the case if released on bail.

He also noted there was no allegation that Gustavo tried to interfere with the investigation thus far, and argued it would be a form of anticipatory punishment to keep Gustavo detained for what could be years before a trial is concluded, while he did not pose a flight risk.

He further argued Gustavo is not a dangerous offender and poses no danger to the public, and that the prosecution did not show it had a strong case against him either.

Brockerhoff suggested Gustavo should be granted bail in the amount of N$100 000, with conditions attached to his release from custody.

Lutibezi argued that conditions attached to bail would not prevent someone intent on absconding from leaving the country. Although there is no evidence that Gustavo has until now tried to interfere with the investigation of the case, there would be nothing preventing him from interfering with evidence or witnesses outside Namibia if released on bail, Lutibezi added.

He also remarked that Gustavo and his co-accused are charged with serious offences, with the state alleging they plundered Namibian resources and sabotaged the country's economy.

Lutibezi further argued that Gustavo had to show it would be in the public interest and the interest of justice to release him on bail – but that he failed to prove this.

Gustavo (44) has been in jail since his arrest on 27 November last year.

He, former fisheries minister Bernhard Esau, ex-minister of justice Sacky Shanghala, former Investec Namibia managing director James Hatuikulipi and Tamson Hatuikulipi, who is Esau's son-in-law, are charged with fraud, bribery, money laundering and conspiring to commit corruption. The charges emanate from allegations that the five accused had been involved in a scheme to benefit financially from the allocation of Namibian fishing quotas to the company Namgomar Pesca Namibia, of which Gustavo is the only director.

Namgomar Pesca Namibia had a horse mackerel fishing quota in Namibia and a catching agreement with an Icelandic-owned company that allegedly paid more than N$103 million in kickbacks to Esau, Shanghala, James Hatuikulipi, Tamson Hatuikulipi and Gustavo, according to one of the charges against the five men.

A sixth accused charged in the same case, Pius Mwatelulo, is charged only with money laundering in the Fishrot case, but is also facing charges in a separate case involving alleged corruption in the use of fishing quotas allocated to the National Fishing Corporation of Namibia (Fishcor).

Gustavo told the court on Friday he would deny guilt on all of the charges when he goes on trial, and said he was intent on standing trial and clearing his name.

He also confirmed he is the sole director of Namgomar Pesca Namibia, which is owned by an Angolan company, Namgomar Pesca SA, but said he did not know who the shareholders of the Angolan company are.

Gustavo said he had been involved in Namgomar Pesca Namibia since 2014 and was paid around N$1 million a year “give or take” as director, and confirmed the company paid a contractor, who renovated his house in an exclusive residential estate east of Windhoek, N$3 million.