'Drop arms charges'

2003-05-26 09:33

Pretoria - Gaye Derby-Lewis, wife of convicted killer Clive Derby-Lewis, is to ask Pretoria regional court on Monday for a discharge on the arms and ammunition-related charges against her.

Her trial was postponed on Thursday for her legal team to prepare arguments in this regard.

Derby-Lewis, whose husband was convicted of the 1993 murder of SA Communist Party leader Chris Hani, pleaded not guilty last week to all charges against her.

She was arrested late last year in a countrywide swoop, dubbed Operation Hopper, which targeted alleged rightwingers.

Derby-Lewis is charged with possession of a.38 Special revolver and a shotgun without a licence or without the permission of the legal licence holders.

A second count relates to the possession of 12 live rounds of 9.65mm ammunition without owning a firearm capable of firing them.

She is also charged with not having a safe to keep the firearms in.

Derby-Lewis admitted she had no licence or permit to possess the .38 Special or the shotgun, and that she had no safe to lock the guns away.

However, she denied intentionally possessing the guns and ammunition illegally. She did not know her son, Anton Graser, left his revolver in a chest of drawers before he went to Canada.

She was not aware the Iver Johnson shotgun, belonging to her husband, could be discharged, and believed to be an antique.

Derby-Lewis said she did not know her own licensed Rossi revolver could not fire the 9.65mm ammunition.

She claimed the search and seizure conducted at her Waterkloof Ridge home on November 29 last year was unconstitutional.

Evidence obtained by the police on that day should be excluded, otherwise her trial would be unfair, Derby-Lewis contended.

Should Monday's application fail, she and her husband are to be called as defence witnesses.

- SAPA