TUESDAY, 5.30PM:
APARTHEID dirty tricks agent Ferdi Barnard’s advocate closed Barnard’s case in the Pretoria High Court on Monday, admitting that he was unable to find even one witness who was prepared to testify for Barnard.
Advocate Faan Coetzee told the court that several witnesses were hesitant to testify as they would be implicated in the crimes and the defence cannot offer them indemnity. Others wanted to testify, but have difficultites of their own, he said.
Barnard’s word alone will therefore stand against the prosecution’s 11 witnesses’ detailed testimony of Barnard’s boasts of killing Wits academic David Webster. Only Barnard’s father, doggedly occupying a seat every day of the trial, remains loyal to his son, accused of 34 murder, fraud and robbery charges.
The trial was postponed to May 14 at the request of prosecutor Anton Ackermann. Presiding Judge Johan Els said he will deliver judgment a few days after Ackerman’s closing argument.