Jurgen Harksen’s extradition inched closer on Monday when the Cape High Court upheld a magistrate’s ruling that opens the way for his return to Germany.
The court turned down Harksen’s appeal against a decision by Cape Town magistrate Ingrid Freitag in April this year that the German authorities had a case, and that Harksen was liable for extradition.
He is wanted in his homeland on multi-million rand fraud and tax evasion charges.
Deputy judge president Jaenette Traverso rejected Harksen’s arguments that Freitag had used the law incorrectly, had not applied her mind, and had attached too much weight to his own statement during the magistrates court hearing that he consented to
extradition.
After Harksen told Freitag he was waiving his right of appeal against her finding, she ordered he be held in prison pending a decision on his surrender by Justice Minister Penuell Maduna.
Maduna issued an extradition order nine days later — before the expiry of a statutory 15-day period for written appeals — and authorities were on the verge of putting the German on a plane when he secured a High Court order to stop them.
He appealed against Freitag’s order, arguing the case himself in the High Court.
His attorney Zirk Mackay said after Traverso’s decision on Monday that Harksen intended taking the matter all the way to the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein.
In addition, an application for a High Court review of Maduna’s order was still pending.
”There’s a lot of stuff still to be done,” Mackay said.
Harksen, who was at court on Monday with his wife Jeanette, has successfully fought off two extradition attempts over the past eight years.
He is being held in protective custody while he completes his evidence to the Desai Commission, which is probing payments he claims he made to the Democratic Alliance in the Western Cape.
Harksen and his wife face fraud charges in South Africa as well. – Sapa