The six suspects, including two former ministers, involved in Namibia’s biggest corruption scandal will remain in police custody until February 20 after their lawyers abandoned their bail application on Monday following their arrest last week, reported Reuters.
Those arrested include Bernhard Esau, former Minister of Fisheries and Marine Resources and Sacky Shanghala, former Minister of Justice. The two former ministers are accused of corruption, fraud and tax evasion. Esau’s son-in-law Tamson Hatuikulipi, his cousin James Hatuikulipi and businessmen Ricardo Gustavo and Pius Mwatelulo are also suspected to be a part of the corruption scandal.
The former ministers, who quit last month when media reports of corruption surfaced, are accused of taking bribes in return for awarding horse mackerel quotas to Samherji, one of Iceland’s largest fishing companies. The charges slapped against the former ministers accuse them of accepting accept 100 million Namibian dollars ($6.8 million) from Samherji’s Namibian subsidiaries from 2014-19 to secure fishing quotas.
The suspects were arrested based on documents leaked by Johannes Stefansson, a former employee of the Icelandic fishing conglomerate Samherji, to the whistle-blowing group WikiLeaks .
The suspects’ lawyers declined to comment on the reason for abandoning their bail application. Samherji has denied wrongdoing.
President Hage Geingob, who was re-elected in a general election last week to serve his final term, said in an address to the nation on Monday that Shanghala and Esau would be removed from parliament. He vowed to step up the fight against corruption in the country.
“I will intensify the fight against corruption at all levels, so that we can arrest this evil,” Geingob said in his first public address since his re-election was declared on Saturday.
Geingob said his government is well aware of Namibians’ anger over the corruption allegations as graft “diverts public resources intended for development.”
