Bloemfontein – The Danish weapons dealer who faces charges of conspiring to have his wife murdered made a call to Denmark on Friday in an effort to get his financial affairs in order so he can get a legal representative.
Earlier, Judge Soma Naidoo had instructed alleged genital mutilator Peter Frederiksen, 64, to get a South African Legal Aid attorney after he made several allegations about lawyers he said were meant to be representing him, Netwerk24 reported.
Naidoo said Frederiksen was stalling the legal process and that he could not hold the legal system hostage.
He ordered Frederiksen to appear with a legal representative by his side in the Free State High Court in Bloemfontein next Friday.
Frederiksen was given the opportunity to use a phone in an office in the courthouse, under police guard, to try and sort out the matter.
Back in the courtroom, he said his brother in Denmark was ready to pay R50 000 to a local lawyer. The lawyer just had to sign a contract.
He complained to the court that he had already deposited R500 000 into the bank account of a Johannesburg lawyer, but now couldn't get hold of him.
59 charges
However, Advocate Amanda Bester, for the State, presented an email to the court which stated that Frederiksen had fired that lawyer.
Frederiksen denied that he had done so.
Stefan de Beer of Hugo en Bruwer Prokureurs in Bloemfontein arrived in court after Frederiksen's phone call and said Marius Bruwer from his firm had had talks with Frederiksen.
He said no money has been deposited yet and neither he nor Bruwer were involved in Frederiksen's defence.
Advocate PC Ploos van Amstel, who appeared for Frederiksen during his previous court appearance and who was in court on Friday, has withdrawn from the case because he has not received any further instruction.
Bester said a Legal Aid lawyer would meet with Frederiksen in the Grootvlei Prison on Monday.
He faces 59 charges, including assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm, possession of unregistered medicine and unlicenced firearms, distribution and possession of child pornography, conspiracy to murder and bigamy.
He was first arrested on September 17, 2015, after 21 clitorises were found in the freezer of his Langenhoven Park home in Bloemfontein.
