Worldwide reaction to arrest

2003-11-06 08:49

Philip de Bruin

Johannesburg - The arrest of Groblersdal magistrate Hendrik van der Walt is having international repercussions.

The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) and Sonia Cronin, assistant to the UN's special envoy for the judiciary's independence in Geneva, were informed of the incident and have already launched investigations.

Pretoria senior regional magistrate Graham Travers, who also also chairs the committee for the independence of the judiciary of the Association of Regional Magistrates (Armsa), is liaising among the ICJ, Cronin and South Africa.

The ICJ becomes involved worldwide when judiciary officials are "harassed".

Under the term "harassment", special reference is made of the arrest or threat of arrest of a legal representative or legal councel.

The ICJ will discuss the matter with the government, and if not satisfied, launch a worldwide campaign to publicise the incident and send a delegation to South Africa to investigate.

Travers said on Wednesday that he had not yet received any feedback from Cronin.

Armsa president Adriaan Bekker, a regional magistrate in Pretoria, said the association was viewing Van der Walt's arrest in a very serious light.

"It's important for the international judiciary to be involved so that any action similar to what happened in Zimbabwe, can be stopped immediately."

Armsa has already sent a letter of complaint to Chief Judge Arthur Chaskalson. "We're sure he knows everything about the arrest, but we thought it prudent to put everything in writing."

Van der Walt was arrested on Thursday of last week and held for six hours after he postponed a case, ordered the accused to be released from custody and later scrapped the case from the roll because the police docket was not at court.

- Beeld