Mungo Soggot
CRAIG WILLIAMSON, the spy turned media celebrity, was “contemptuous” in his attitude toward the justice system and the truth commission, the Pretoria Supreme Court heard this week.
Williamson was appearing in the first round of a case that could become a landmark clash between the truth commission and the justice system.
He is facing a civil suit by Marius Schoon, the father and husband of Jeanette and Katherine Schoon – two people Williamson has previously admitted he and colleagues had killed in southern Angola with a parcel bomb. He is seeking to duck the civil suit by applying for amnesty from the truth commission.
Williamson arrived in court on Wednesday with a posse of security guards, some of whom were sporting ties with the logo of Saracen Security, a company linked to military advisers Executive Outcomes. Both Williamson and Executive Outcomes trade in Angola.
Schoon launched the civil suit in 1995 after Williamson confessed to the killings in the London Observer, meaning Williamson has had the opportunity to approach the truth commission since it opened for business last year but failed to do so until now. However, this week he applied to the court for a postponement because of his eleventh-hour decision to go the commission.
His postponement application threw in two additional grounds for postponement – that the case was “not ripe for hearing” and that he would be prejudiced if the civil trial goes ahead while criminal proceedings are pending. Williamson is also being investigated by police in connection with the Schoon matter, the killing of Ruth First and the bombing of the ANC London offices.
While the court spent much of Wednesday grappling with the postponement application, Schoon and Williamson sat at opposite ends of the public gallery – Schoon, small and hunched next to his lawyer in the front and the portly Williamson squeezed between two body guards at the back.
Schoon’s attorney Karin Norval accuses Williamson in an affidavit filed with the court of a “contemptuous disregard for proper procedure … the delays in Williamson applying for amnesty were deliberate and a concerted attempt to delay justice …
“He chose to ignore the cut-off date [for amnesties] and was seemingly contemptuous of the amnesty process to the extent of being prepared to take the chance and gamble on the cut-off date being extended …”
Papers show that as late as November 14 1996 Williamson indicated his “intention of possibly seeking amnesty” and that at a pre-trial conference on January 9 Williamson’s attorney, Allan Levin, did not disclose the amnesty application.
Summons was served on Williamson on August 18 1995, but he waited until November 30 1995 before asking Schoon to drop the suit as he intended seeking amnesty.
Williamson claims he has been cautious about applying for amnesty because of its implications for his criminal liability outside South Africa.
This is Williamson’s second shot at obtaining a stay of proceedings. Last April Judge Mohammed Navsa dismissed Williamson’s application, ordering him to pay all costs. Williamson was given ten days to file a plea.
Missing the deadline by a day, he filed a plea that denied all knowledge of the murders.
Schoon’s legal team, headed by veteran human rights advocate George Bizos, quote ANC intelligence chief Joe Nhlanlha, saying the ANC broke off talks with Williamson because it doubted he was being “open and frank about his involvement in human rights atrocities.”
At the time of going to press Judge van der Walt had yet to rule on Williamson’s application for a postponement.
Williamson’s counsel is advocate Guttentag of the Johannesburg Bar.