Fishrot suspects seek release of assets

Former Fisheries & Marine Resources Minister Bernhard Esau, his son-in-law Tamson Hatuikulipi and co-accused Ricardo Gustavo say they urgently need funds to pay their lawyers. The three men who have been charged in connection with the Fishrot graft scandal, are asking the High Court to give them access to some of their assets, which they say they need to pay their lawyers for work done over the past year and to cover the expected costs of their legal representation during their eventual trial in the Windhoek High Court. In documents filed at the court, Esau and Hatuikulipi say they need to jointly pay N$856 000 (R856 000) to the law firm Metcalfe Beukes Attorneys for past work to avoid losing their legal representation. The Namibian reports that the Prosecutor-General has given notice that she is opposing the three men's request to be allowed to raise money from their assets that have been under a Prevention of Organised Crime Act provisional restraint order since November last year. Legalbrief reports that several suspects have been charged with fraud, corruption and money laundering in connection with the Fishrot fishing quotas corruption scandal. They are accused of having been involved in a scheme in which Icelandic companies paid them at least N$103m (R103m) to get access to Namibian fishing quotas between 2014 and 2019.