Yengeni to challenge ruling

2005-11-11 15:41

Pretoria - Convicted fraudster Tony Yengeni would seek to challenge the Pretoria High Court's dismissal on Friday of his appeal against a fraud conviction and four-year sentence.

Yengeni had given instructions to seek the high court's leave to lodge an appeal in the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) in Bloemfontein, his attorney Marius du Toit said.

If this were denied, he would petition the SCA directly.

"We are still studying the judgement. We will meet Mr Yengeni next week to discuss what exact points to appeal against," he said.

Yengeni, who is out on bail, has two weeks to file the required court documents or report to jail.

The Pretoria High Court found that the four-year jail term imposed on the former African National Congress chief whip "errs significantly on the side of leniency".

A sentence of five year in effect would have been more appropriate, judges Eberhard Bertelsmann and Ferdi Preller said.

Supervision

Yengeni's sentence stipulates he could be released into correctional supervision after eight months behind bars.

The judges said they had considered giving notice of their intention to increase the penalty at the time of hearing Yengeni's appeal.

"But (we) were dissuaded from this course by the fact that the appeal would then have had to be postponed, delaying justice yet once more...

"Our inaction should not be regarded as an indication that a similar sentence will be endorsed by this court in a comparable case in future."

The judges found the politician had been correctly convicted of defrauding Parliament by failing to disclose a near-50 percent discount on a 4x4 Mercedes-Benz.

He had lied about it for nearly two years.

Defence

A non-custodial sentence, as sought by the State and the defence, would be "flagrantly inappropriate", they said.

To raise his resignation from Parliament as a mitigating factor was a fallacy.

"The removal from an office of trust by a person who has, by dishonesty and greed, demonstrated that she or he is unfit to hold such office, is a natural consequence of such unfitness.

"The immediate and permanent removal from an office of trust should follow in every case of a crime involving an element of dishonesty as a matter of law and public policy."

Initially charged with corruption and fraud, Yengeni was convicted in 2003 on an alternative count of fraud following plea negotiations with the State.

The car deal was arranged by a representative of a bidder in the government's arms acquisition process, at a time when Yengeni was chair of Parliament's joint standing committee on defence.

The judges said Yengeni had begun the fraudulent deal, and then helped prepare a backdated agreement of sale falsely stating the car had been purchased at a price of R230 052, and that he had paid a R50 000 deposit.

He in fact paid R182 563 in total.

- SAPA