The man held in connection with the assassinations of Dr David Webster and advocate Anton Lubowski is Ferdie Barnard, a 31-year-old insurance agent, former police sergeant and convicted murderer. Barnard was detained at his Roodepoort home on October 31 and has been held ever since.
According to Weekly Mail sources, he was arrested as a result of the information obtained from Donald Ascherson, the man being held in Namibia in connection with Lubowski’s murder. A police representative said yesterday that Barnard had ”taken his discharge” from the West Rand police narcotics bureau in 1984, when awaiting trial. He was later convicted of murder, attempted murder and theft. He was sentenced to six years imprisonment but is believed to have served no more than four. It is not known how he managed to get an early release.
In an urgent application for his release last Friday, his father, retired police captain Petrus Jacobus Barnard, said his son had told him early in October that police were looking for him in connection with the Lubowski and Webster murders. He told his son to hand himself over to the Brixton. Murder and Robbery Squad, which he did. His son later told him he had been extensively interrogated about the two murders, and subsequently released. But on the afternoon of October 31, Ferdie was taken from his Roodepoort home without a change of clothes or toiletries by three plainclothes policemen. On hearing of this from his son’s girlfriend, Petrus Barnard made enquiries with the security and Brixton police, both of whom denied the arrest.
Brigadier Floris Mostert of Brixton had declined to discuss the arrest on the telephone and suggested they meet on November 1 in Warmbaths. Here he was told his son was being held under the Internal Security Act in connection with the two murders. In his replying affidavit, Mostert, who is the investigating officer in the Webster case, said he had arrested Barnard on June 9 this year. He was held on suspicion of robbery after Mostert had followed leads suggesting that Barnard, and other unnamed persons, had been monitoring the movements of one of Webster’s colleagues. He was later released. Mostert said Barnard was re-arrested in connection with the Webster and Lubowski murders on October 31. Police confirmed yesterday a white man had been held under Section 29 of the Internal Security Act which provides for detention without trial for the purposes of interrogation. They said he had been held for ”some time”.
Barnard’s lawyer, Krugersdrop attorney WS van Vuuren, said the former police sergeant was being held under Section 40 of the Criminal Procedure Act having previously being held under Section 29. The application for his release, which was withdrawn on Tuesday, was heard by Mr Justice J Kriegler. Johannesburg attorney Lawley Shein, who represented several of those arrested by Barnard when he was a policeman, said in one trial the judge had declared him ”an unmitigated liar”. ”We took advantage of this ruling, and it helped us get the charges withdrawn against several clients.”
Barnard had been sentenced to six years imprisonment for the murder of two people caught in a drug bust but, according to Shein, served only a small part of his sentence. Barnard was sentenced for setting a trap for a group of Mandrax addicts and taking part in their killing. A police spokesman said that despite the ”release of certain particulars to the press” the police had not ruled out the possibility of further arrests. It is understood that police are investigating the existence of a death squad operation, possibly connected to Barnard, involved with planning the assassinations of anti-apartheid activists.
Wits University academic and human rights activist Webster was murdered outside his Troyeville home on May I this year. Namibian advocate, trade unionist and Swapo member Lubowski was shot outside his Windhoek home on the night of September 12 this year. Mostert could not be reached for comment. – Vusi Gunene, Gavin Evans and Philippa Garson
This article originally appeared in the Weekly Mail.
