'Informer abetted the crimes'

2003-11-12 20:12

Pretoria - A police informer and State witness in the Boeremag treason trial was accused by defence counsel on Wednesday of abetting the crimes in which he was now trying to implicate the 22 accused.

Among other things, Johannes Coenraad Smit boasted about his experience with bomb-planting at a meeting held in 2001 to plan a violent coup d'etat, said defence advocate Harry Prinsloo while cross-examining him in Pretoria High Court.

Prinsloo asked Smit about claims that he bragged of his bombing "skills" at one of the first meetings held by the Boeremag.

Smit admitted telling the gathering of his involvement in a spate of bombings orchestrated by the rightwing Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging before the first democratic elections in 1994.

"So, you were encouraging such things?" Prinsloo asked. "You were not merely collecting information, but were encouraging such acts?"

Smit said he did so as part of his task of gathering information on the Boeremag for the police.

Prinsloo accused Smit of telling lies.

Told of strip-club visit

He said his client, Mike du Toit, denied taking part in a meeting at a brothel in the north of Pretoria about which Smit had testified.

Smit told the court last week Du Toit called the meeting at a place called Pleasers to discuss details of the coup.

Pleasers, he said, was a brothel attached to strip club Teazers, which he, Du Toit and others had previously visited to plan the rightwing insurrection.

On the evening of November 9 2001, he, Du Toit and others had a few drinks at Pleasers after which Du Toit was "escorted by one of the escorts", Smit had told the court.

Prinsloo produced a record on Wednesday of phone calls to and from Smit's cellphone on that night and said this brought the testimony into question.

Smit was unable to explain why Pleasers was never named in his written statement.

"I believe that your revelation here was made with malicious intent," Prinsloo told Smit. "My client denies attending a meeting like the one you described."

Prinsloo next asked Smit to write the words "Murray Hill", "Speskop" and the numbers "50" and "100" 20 times each.

Similarities in handwriting

Prinsloo used this to argue that handwriting on a document, dubbed Document 12, was not his client's, but was Smit's.

Smit claimed Du Toit gave him the document, a blueprint for the coup, and made notes on it in his presence.

Prinsloo pointed out that when writing down "Murray Hill" in court, Smit had left out the letter "a", just as in the notes on Document 12.

Du Toit and 21 others are standing trial on 42 charges including murder, attempted murder, treason, terrorism, sabotage, and arms and explosives violations.

Smit, a former Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging member turned police informer, was the first State witness to testify in the trial.

The trial continues on Thursday.

- SAPA