TUESDAY, 3.00PM
CHEMICAL warfare expert Wouter Basson has managed once again to have his case heard behind closed doors on Tuesday. Pretoria magistrate FW Pohlman ruled that those parts of the Basson case dealing with the secret army Project Coast should be heard in closed session.
The court is hearing a bail application by Basson after his second arrest last week, on fraud charges involving R30m in State funds for covert apartheid-era defence projects, which allegedly ended up in personal bank accounts abroad.
Basson first came to public notice when he was arrested on charges of dealing in 1 000 ecstasy tablets. He arrived in court in a bullet-proof vest, and managed to have his case heard in camera, despite an urgent application by Business Day to have the case heard in public.
Basson’s lawyers have managed to argue succesfully in both cases that their client was privy to information too sensitive for public hearing, and that his life would be endangered if any of his secrets were revealed.
Project Coast was launched in 1980 and involved the manufacture of biological warfare weapons, and the purchase of weapons from abroad through the black market. Basson was the leader of the project.