A comprehensive environmental case about fraud in the millions in Horsens Fjord has been postponed for five months.
This is because important evidence in the form of 77 ring binders has disappeared. It writes TV2 East Jutland.
Originally, a verdict should have been handed down in the case on Monday, but after the ring binders, from which the prosecutor has obtained evidence, have disappeared, the defense has demanded that the entire case be postponed.
The owner of Hjarnø Havbrug, Anders Østergaard Pedersen, has been charged with 31 counts in the case.
He is accused of having taken a great interest in environmental approvals and greatly increased the production of trout in the years from 2013 to 2018.
Floating rings with fish farming in and off Horsens Fjord were filled to bursting point – with pollution of the fjord as a result, the indictment reads.
The aquaculture owner is also accused of having released 373,000 silver salmon on one of his three aquaculture farms, even though there was only permission to release trout.
The prosecutor demands imprisonment and confiscation of 191 million kroner, while the 50-year-old owner denies guilt in all charges.
The prosecution does not believe that the missing ring binders have any significance for the case, writes TV2 East Jutland.
– First and foremost, I think it is important to focus on the fact that even though the ring binders are gone, it is actually our opinion that there are no changes in the case, says Micheal Møller Hansen, who is chief prosecutor at the South East Jutland Police , to the TV station.
At the same time, he acknowledges that it is the prosecution’s fault that the ring binders have disappeared. How it happened, he has no idea.
Judgment in the case is expected on September 10. The aquaculture owner has previously pleaded not guilty.
/ ritzau
Source: The Nordic Page