Boeremag legal bid delays trial
2013-01-24 19:07
Pretoria - A possible bid by some Boeremag members to
overturn their convictions of high treason has delayed the trial again.
Judge Eben Jordaan on Thursday postponed the trial of the
20 Boeremag accused to Monday next week.
This was after a request by attorney Paul Kruger, who
represents several of the accused, for more time, so that the accused could
study statements and consult with him and their legal representatives.
He said some of the accused were contemplating an
application in terms of Section 317 of the Criminal Procedures Act for a
special entry on the court record of an irregularity.
Such an entry can be used on appeal for an application to
have convictions set aside, if the appeal court finds that an irregularity had
occurred which materially prejudiced the accused.
It will, however, not prevent the trial from proceeding
and the accused will still have to present their case in mitigation of
sentence.
Kruger said it was vitally important to find out which of
the accused supported such an application.
He said an affidavit by former intelligence officer
Captain Deon Loots and several other statements had already been prepared.
Kruger was asked to launch an investigation after the
Sunday newspaper Rapport in October last year published two articles quoting
statements by Loots that police spies had planted evidence and enticed Boeremag
members to commit crimes.
Loots also alleged crime intelligence had eavesdropped on
conversations between the Boeremag accused and their legal representatives
while they were in custody.
Judge Jordaan in August last year finally concluded his
judgment in the nine-year-long trial.
All 20 of the accused were found guilty of high treason
resulting from a far-rightwing plot to violently overthrow the ANC.
The Boeremag's bomb squad, Kobus Pretorius, his brothers
Johan and Wilhelm, Herman van Rooyen and Rudi Gouws were in addition found
guilty of attempting to murder former president Nelson Mandela with a home-made
bomb.
They were also convicted of murdering Claudia Mokone in
Soweto in 2002.
Mokone died when a piece of steel dislodged by a Boeremag
bomb on a railway line landed on her shack.
Advocate Daan Mostert, who represents Kobus Pretorius, on
Thursday told the court his client was ready to testify in mitigation of
sentence and would take the stand when the trial resumed on Monday.
Kobus Pretorius issued a statement after his conviction,
in which he distanced himself from his family's "extreme" political
and religious ideals and asked forgiveness for the harm he had caused.
- SAPA
