Dirk Prinsloo's appeal denied
2010-11-12 10:38
Pretoria - Susan Lemmer, the mother of advocate Cézanne Visser, said on Thursday she was happy to hear that Dirk Prinsloo's appeal against his 13-year jail sentence for attempted robbery in Belarus had been dismissed.
"That's where he belongs," she said about her daughter's former lover.
This means that Prinsloo, a former advocate and ex-chairperson of the independent bar association in Gauteng, will serve out the rest of his sentence in a penal colony in Belarus under strict conditions. He attempted to rob the Belarus Bank in Baranovichi on June 10 2009.
Prinsloo earlier described his sentence to Beeld as "fucking crazy".
'Deserves' sentence
The court also ordered that Prinsloo should pay for his trial, pay an amount of tax to the State and compensate his victims for an amount of five million roubles for the "moral and physical damage" he had caused them.
"If they want to keep Prinsloo there (in the penal colony) for longer, I would also welcome it," said Lemmer.
Her daughter started serving her seven year jail sentence on May 17 in the Pretoria Central Prison for sex acts that she and Prinsloo committed with three girls from a children's home and three young women.
Advocate Johann Engelbrecht, who managed the trial of Visser, 33, in the North Gauteng High Court, also said Prinsloo "deserved" his sentence.
"I am happy that he is at least now also serving a sentence even if it isn't in SA. He deserves the punishment he has been given. Actually, I think he was punished lightly," said Engelbrecht.
Prinsloo fled to Belarus in May 2006 in the middle of his and Visser's trial, following the end of their relationship.
Visser 'doing well'
Engelbrecht said Visser had adapted well and had integrated with her fellow prisoners.
Lemmer said her daughter had become a deeper Christian and better human being since starting her prison sentence.
"She is well under the circumstances," said Lemmer.
Visser, also a former advocate, may receive contact visits from November 16 because she will by then have served six months of her sentence.
Two weeks ago, two of her victims each claimed R600 000 in damages from her in the High Court. The claimants were teenagers at the time.
One of the claimants, now 24, and an insurance clerk, said in court documents that Visser had on February 22 2002 exposed her to pornographic literature and movies, "intimate acts or therapy" which were performed on Visser's private parts, and had also exposed her to her naked body.
