Boeremag judge fumes

2004-02-20 12:30

Pretoria - "Scandalous," is how Boeremag treason trial Judge Eben Jordaan on Friday described the department of correctional services' apparent contempt of his orders.

An angry Jordaan ordered the head of Pretoria's local prison, Director Nico Baloyi, to come to court personally on Tuesday next week to appear in a contempt of court investigation.

"I want to know who's the person responsible for not complying with my order. He must come and give reasons why he should not be found guilty of contempt," the Judge said.

Jordaan on Tuesday this week ordered the prison service to return Wilhelm Pretorius' laptop computer to him and to allow his fellow accused, who are in jail with him, to use the computer to study the record of proceedings.

The State supplied Pretorius with an electronic record of the court proceedings, which he and others used to prepare for the trial. The Judge said he could not see any prejudice in their use of the computer for the purpose and it could it fact prevent unnecessary delays in the trial.

On Friday, however, Pretorius' counsel Piet Pistorius, told the court his client still did not have his laptop back. He said it seemed as if correctional services felt the court order was "worth nothing" and need not be complied with.

Another defence counsel, Bernard Bantjes, said the credibility of the legal system was at stake.

Jordaan said if prison authorities were not happy with his order, or felt that it could not be carried out, they could have come to court to ask him to rescind the order.

'Not prepared to lose his feet'

Meanwhile, a third defence lawyer, appearing for Adriaan van Wyk, told the court his client felt he would have no other option than to refuse to come to court of the police kept on insisting on putting him in leg irons, "because he was not prepared to lose his feet".

It had taken Van Wyk, who suffers from diabetes, a long time to recover from previous injuries caused by leg irons, only to face new injuries because of a recent decision to use leg irons on him again, the court was told.

Jordaan said he wanted a medical report on Van Wyk's condition before making any orders.

Cross-examination of police informer Johan (JC) Smit, who claimed to have infiltrated the Boeremag's inner circle, continued on Friday.

Pistorius, who represents eight of the accused, put it to Smit that his clients had never been aware of the existence of Document 12 - a detailed coup plan - and disassociated themselves with its content.

The accused said they did not know how some of their names came to be on the document or why, realised that the coup plan was unrealistic and could not be carried out and rejected it.

The trial continues on Monday.

- SAPA