Boeremag member a changed man
2013-01-28 14:38
Johannesburg - Convicted Boeremag member Kobus Pretorius
has told the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria, he is not the same man who
was arrested in 2002, SABC news reported on Monday.
Pretorius was testifying in mitigation of his sentencing
in the Boeremag treason case.
He told the court he no longer believed in the utopia of
four Boeremag republics.
He said he had thought about his life and beliefs during
his time in jail.
He had severed all ties with his family as they could not
accept him and his new beliefs.
Last week, the possible bid by the Boeremag members to
have their convictions for high treason overturned was delayed.
Judge Eben Jordaan postponed the trial of the 20 Boeremag
members to this week.
The decision followed a request by attorney Paul Kruger,
who represented several of the accused, for more time, so they could study
statements and consult their lawyers.
Kruger 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.
Such an entry can be used on appeal for an application to
have convictions set aside, if the appeal court finds an irregularity occurred
which materially prejudiced the accused.
In August last year, Jordaan finally concluded his
judgment in the nine-year-long trial.
All 20 accused were found guilty of high treason
resulting from a far-rightwing plot to violently overthrow the ANC government.
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 planted on a railway line was flung into her shack.
- SAPA
