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PW BOTHA may get jail term. [boodskap #17073]

Di, 25 Augustus 1998 00:00

Frikkie Potgieter
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Geregistreer: Februarie 1997

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PW MAY GET JAIL TERM

GEORGE. - A jail term is hanging over the head of former president PW Botha.
He will have to testify before the amnesty committee of the Truth and
Reconciliation Commission (TRC) - regardless of the appeal he served here
yesterday against his sentence in the regional court.
The pending appeal case does not mean Botha may ignore any new subpoena,
state prosecutor and Western Cape deputy attorney-general, Advocate Bruce
Morrison, told Die Burger.
There are already indications that Botha will be subpoenaed to testify
before at least the amnesty committee hearing in September.
Morrison said that should Botha refuse to respond to a subpoena while a
finding was pending in the appeal case, he could bring a new court case
upon himself. Should he then be found guilty, he would be sent to prison in
terms of the sentence passed yesterday.
Yesterday Botha became the first former president of South Africa to be
found guilty of a criminal offence. He was charged after refusing last year
to appear before the TRC's committee on human rights violations to testify
about the then State Security Council (SSC).
Botha, unrepentant to the last, listened grim-faced as regional
magistrate Victor Lugaju first found him guilty of all charges, then fined
him R10 000 ($1 600) or twelve months in prison. He was also sentenced to
12 months imprisonment, suspended for five years, on condition that he does
not contravene the TRC Act again.
Lugaju and two assessors, advocate Burton Fourie and Mrs Cordelia
Robertson, unanimously found Botha had acted willfully and unlawfully when
he decided without sufficient grounds not to appear at the hearing.
In a ruling in which he dismissed all legal arguments of Botha's legal
team, Lugaju said the court believed the TRC had treated Botha with the
utmost courtesy at all times and went out of its way to try to settle the
case.
Botha never showed any remorse in court. The court found that Botha, as
chairman of the SSC from 1978 to 1989, was the person most qualified to
help the TRC determine if the previous government had created the
environment for gross human rights violations.
Lugaju referred to testimony of Eugene de Kock, who had understood the
terms "eliminate", "neutralise" and "take out", which had appeared in SSC
minutes, meant people should be killed.
Before sentencing, Morrison asked the court to impose a fine of at least
R60 000 ($9 500) and a provisionally suspended sentence.
He told Die Burger later that the case had cost the state an estimated
R1 million ($158 000) to R1,5 million ($238 000) if security measures that
cost R150 000 ($24 000) a day were taken into account.
It is estimated Botha's legal costs could run to R750 000 ($120 000)
already.
After sentencing Botha left the building with a grim expression.
He refused to comment to the media. He was released on R50 ($7) bail
pending appeal, which his legal team will serve in the Cape High Court.
His lawyer Mr Ernst Penzhorn said later Botha was relieved that the
regional court case had come to an end. "It was a very long two years."
He said Botha believed another court may reach a different verdict.
Asked what Botha would do if subpoenaed to appear before the TRC again,
he said: "We shall have to wait and see."

EDITOR'S NOTE : JUST LIKE IN ANY OTHER COMMUNIST COUNTRY,
PREVIOUS RULERS ARE ROUND UP TO BE PUNISHED FOR ACTIONS THEY
TOOK AGAINST THE COMMUNISTS.