Three more in court in abalone case

THREE more people accused of being abalone poachers appeared at the Paarl Magistrate’s Court as the Hawks intensified their investigation into abalone poaching in the province.

One of the accused, Cheswin Isaacs, will be joined to the case of nine Department of Agriculture employees, Fisheries Control Officers and eight poachers who appeared at the Hermanus Magistrate’s Court last week.

The trio were arrested on charges of possession of abalone, transporting abalone, reckless and negligent driving, driving without a licence and defeating the ends of justice.

National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson Eric Ntabazalila said bail was opposed.

“Advocate Nico Breyl opposed bail against Isaacs and (Albert) van Niekerk as they were facing schedule 5 offences. They have previous convictions of poaching. For (Angelo) Charles, bail was set at R5 000,” Ntabazalila said.

Last week, 17 people facing charges related to corruption and abalone poaching appeared at the Hermanus Magistrate’s Court. The case was postponed to until tomorrow as three warrants of arrest still had to be carried out.

Ntabazalila said the 17 accused face seven charges which emanate from 40 incidents between September 12 and November 20, 2016.

These include charges of corruption, racketeering, theft, defeating the ends of justice, loading, selling, receiving or possession of fish in contravention of the marine act, and transport or possession of abalone not in a whole state.

“The first nine accused are inspectors employed by the Department of Agriculture, Forestries and Fisheries who were working with the accused from (September) 10 until (November) 17. The State, represented by advocates Blaine Lazarus and Nico Breyl, asked the court to postpone the matter for the next seven days as it intended to join the case of all accused persons involved in this poaching case,” Ntabazalila said.

The suspects were arrested by a multidisciplinary team led by the Hawks.