The first accused in the Fishrot fraud, corruption and racketeering case, Ricardo Gustavo, and a company represented by him have given notice that they will be asking the High Court to order the state to provide them with more details on the charges they are facing.
The charges on which Gustavo and the company Namgomar Pesca Namibia are requesting more information are counts of racketeering, money laundering, conspiracy to commit corruption, corruptly giving gratification, fraud and tax evasion, Gustavo’s defence lawyer, Ileni Gebhardt, says in a document filed at the High Court.
Judge Eileen Rakow postponed the hearing of the application for further particulars to 11 November at the end of an appearance that the individual accused in the matter made before her in the Windhoek High Court yesterday.
In a sworn statement by Gustavo, he recounts that he obtained his present legal representation through the Directorate of Legal Aid during late December 2025.
He says Gebhardt wrote to the prosecutor general on his behalf in June this year and asked to be provided with further particulars on the charges against him and Namgomar Pesca Namibia.
Further particulars were not provided in a response received from the Office of the Prosecutor General in August, Gustavo says.
In the response, it was said the particulars are in the state’s indictment setting out the charges against the accused, “and that more detail could be obtained from the docket or from ‘the comprehensive forensic report, which tracked the flow of funds and benefits received in respect of each accused”, Gustavo says.
He also says Gebhardt again wrote to the prosecutor general to request for more information on the charges after she received the first response.
In a second response, the state informed her that in its view the particulars already sufficiently inform Gustavo of the state’s case against him on each charge and that no further particulars would be provided by the state.
Gustavo adds that the further particulars Gebhardt has requested include information about the offences alleged to have made up a pattern of racketeering, who committed each of those offences, when an alleged conspiracy to commit corruption was formed, what gratification was given by him and Namgomar Pesca Namibia and to whom it was given, and what representations were made as part of the fraud of which they are accused.
The right to be provided with further particulars is closely tied to the right to a fair trial, Gustavo says as well.
“The first step of every defence is to know exactly what one is said to have done,” he says.
He also says: “The charge is the means by which an accused is told the case against him. In this matter, however, the counts concerned are framed broadly against many accused together, as racketeering, conspiracy and common purpose charges. They do not say what each applicant is alleged to have done. In such a case, the charge on its own does not tell the applicants the case we must meet.”
The state is alleging that the Fishrot accused were involved in the unlawful acquisition and use of Namibian fishing quotas between 2014 and 2019.
In its indictment, the state is alleging that Gustavo received financial benefits totalling at least N$22.4 million from Namgomar Pesca Namibia, after the company received Namibian horse mackerel quotas and concluded a quota usage agreement with a company in the Icelandic fishing company group Samherji.
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