/ 25 September 2008

End of the road for Waterkloof Four

The Waterkloof Four have exhausted all avenues to stay out of prison, the Star reported on Thursday.

They will now have to serve their 12-year jail sentences after the Constitutional Court turned down their applications for leave to appeal.

Ten of the Constitutional Court justices found that the application for leave to appeal had to be turned down because there was no prospect that their appeal could ever succeed.

Oelof de Meyer, the lawyer for Reinach Tiedt (22), Frikkie du Preez (23) and Gert van Schalkwyk (22) on Wednesday admitted it was now the end of the legal road.

”Yes, it is finished and there is nothing more we can do. I spoke to their parents and explained the situation to them. It is unpleasant, but they are accepting it. They want to see their children to explain the situation to them.”

De Meyer said his clients had now accepted that they would have to face their jail terms and that they would have to make the best of it.

The application of Christoff Becker (23), who had broken away from his three friends and obtained his own lawyer, was also turned down.

All four reported to prison last month to start serving their sentences after the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein also rejected their bid to appeal their convictions and sentences.

The four were found guilty in June 2005 of attacking and killing an unidentified man in Moreleta Park and attacking another unidentified man on the same evening in Constantia in December 2001.

They were aged 15 and 16 at the time of the murder and assaults. — Sapa