Boeremag trial in pigeon talk
2003-08-28 23:33
Pretoria - The State confronted an alleged member of the Boeremag (Boer Force) with records and documents about race pigeons, which were allegedly written in code, in court on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Mike du Toit, his brother, Andre, and Jacobus "Rooikoos" du Plessis claimed that their constitutional rights were infringed when police confiscated a privileged document, outlining their defence, in the Pretoria Local Prison in October 2002. Du Toit claimed the State reinforced its case after reading the document - removing some witness statements, altering others, and obtaining new ones.
He was unable to comply with a request from state advocate Paul Fick to list each instance in which he claimed the docket was altered. The case was postponed till Tuesday after Du Toit claimed he would need several days' preparation to be able to point out the changes.
Apart from the defence documents, police apparently also confiscated drawings by Du Toit's children and newspaper clippings and records of racing pigeons. Du Toit said police told him they were confiscating these documents "to lend a little humour to the case".
Fick told the court that the way in which the pigeon records were kept was similar to the so-called Slidex system - a communication code - and police could have suspected that it contained encrypted information.
He said the state never studied the document or had it analysed.
Du Toit, a former lecturer with a master's degree in philosophy, and Fick constantly tried to outsmart each other through questions and answers in court on Thursday. At one point, Du Toit's 21 co-accused even applauded one of Du Toit's answers and had to be reprimanded by Judge Eben Jordaan.
The men are standing trial for allegedly plotting to overthrow the government with the aim of declaring a "Boer" republic. They face 42 charges, including murder, attempted murder, high treason, and a range of violations of arms, ammunition and explosives laws.