Man jailed over Boeremag escape

2011-11-21 15:32

Bloemfontein - A Modimolle man must serve a five year prison term for helping two alleged Boeremag members hide at his farm, the Supreme Court of Appeal held on Monday.

Jaco Bogaards was found guilty in June 2008 of hiding two suspected Boeremag members on his farm in Modimolle (previously Nylstroom).

The SCA dismissed an appeal by Bogaards against a decision by the North Gauteng High Court, which convicted him for harbouring and concealing Boeremag trialist Herman van Rooyen.

Van Rooyen escaped while under a court order to remain in custody in 2006. He and Rudolph Gouws were part of a group of 22 people indicted to face numerous charges, including treason, sabotage, murder, and bombing a Soweto mosque and a Buddhist temple in Bronkhorstspruit.

Escape

Van Rooyen and Gouws were kept in custody at the Pretoria C-Max prison and escaped during their trial. They slipped away during a lunch adjournment from the court’s detention cells.

In a majority judgment, the SCA dismissed a challenge by Bogaards that the escapees were not prisoners when they escaped because of a defect in the detention warrants under which they were kept in custody.

The court found that the detention of a convicted or awaiting-trial person was lawful by virtue of the underlying court order.

In this matter it was a court order that refused the escapees bail until their trial was finalised.

The SCA held a defect in a detention warrant, even one which rendered it invalid, could not supersede the authority of the relevant court order.

The court found that Bogaards had contravened the provisions of the Correctional Services Act by harbouring or concealing escaped prisoners on his farm.

- SAPA