The Cape Town Regional Court on Tuesday dismissed an application for the release from custody of German fugitive Jurgen Harksen.
The application was brought before magistrate Arno Lombard who rejected a contention by Harksen’s four-man legal team that Harksen’s continued detention was illegal because of the decision to extradite him forthwith.
Defence senior counsel Dirk Uijs had contended that a suspect could only be lawfully detained in order to secure his attendance at his trial.
However, a recent press statement from the national Directorate for Public Prosecutions had said that Harksen’s extradition had to take preference to his trial in South Africa and that his extradition was now urgent.
Uijs contended that if no trial was to take place, Harksen had to be released.
Uijs had told the court that the German authorities do not extradite German citizens, and would therefore not extradite Harksen back to South Africa after his trial in Germany.
This meant that no trial could take place in South Africa once Harksen was extradited.
This also meant that Harksen was no longer being held in custody pending trial in South Africa.
Harksen was recently taken into custody on multiple fraud charges, involving millions of rands, allegedly committed in South Africa.
Lombard said that experts had been appointed to assist in the South African investigation which had also been intensified and was an indication that there was every intention to proceed with the South African trial.
The magistrate said the ministerial decision to extradite Harksen was to be taken on appeal to the Supreme Court of Appeals, which may well rule that his extradition should be stayed.
The magistrate said the question now was whether the decision by the national Directorate for Public Prosecutions (DPP), to give extradition priority was in fact a final decision.
Lombard said new developments had followed and Harksen had since obtained an interdict to stop his extradition.
It was clear from the press statement issued by the DPP that a possibility of prosecuting Harksen in South Africa still existed.
The magistrate said that a final decision, not to prosecute Harksen, had not been taken and there was no duty on the DPP to make decisions urgently to suit Harksen.
He said the DPP may change its mind and the Supreme Court of Appeals could overturn the ministerial order for Harksen’s extradition.
Lombard said the courts could not act merely on a press statement.
The magistrate said he was convinced in the circumstances that Harksen’s detention was lawful, that a trial was intended and the court had no grounds to say that Harksen’s constitutional right to freedom was being infringed by his detention.
The magistrate said that with all delays caused by the pending actions involving Harksen and his extradition, it was possible that his trial in South Africa could be finalised before his extradition.
The case was postponed to August 30 for further investigation. – Sapa