The Boeremag treason trial was postponed in the Pretoria High Court on Monday for some of the accused to prepare an urgent application to stop prison authorities from ”torturing” them with loud music.
Piet Pistorius, for 13 of the accused, said C-Max prison management has ignored requests to stop broadcasting Metro FM to all prisoners.
His clients therefore had no choice but to approach the court with an urgent application to force prison authorities to discontinue the broadcasts.
Last week, some of the trialists complained that loud ”black” music being played over the prison sound system was driving them insane. The court was told that one of the men had contemplated suicide.
Most of the men had their own radios in their cells.
Dries van Rensburg, for the State, informed the judge that the prison alternated Metro FM with Jacaranda 94.2 every second day.
In a letter to C-Max management last Wednesday, the men claimed Metro FM broadcasts were being forced on them 15 hours a day, at ”horrendous noise levels”.
This was having a ”drastic psychological effect” on them, impairing their ability to prepare for the trial. They claimed this was a violation of their basic human rights.
One man, Tom Vorster, also complained that he was fed four slices of dry bread and tea around 2pm every afternoon, to eat again only the next morning. His lawyer, Rudi Lubbe, claimed Vorster was given permission to keep canned food in his cell, but had his can opener confiscated.
Pistorius and Lubbe would use the rest of the day to consult their clients about the urgent application.
Proceedings were delayed for about an hour in the morning when it was discovered that a computer in the courtroom had been tampered with over the weekend.
National police spokesperson Sally de Beer said the hard drive had been removed from a computer used to record the proceedings.
She said the court building and courtroom were locked over the weekend, but there was no sign of forced entry.
Police swept the building for fingerprints and other clues before the courtroom was reopened around 11am. Investigations would continue, De Beer said.
Twenty-two alleged members of the right-wing Boeremag organisation stand accused of plotting to overthrow the government with the aim of declaring a ”Boer” republic.
They face 42 charges, including murder, attempted murder, high treason and a range of violations of arms, ammunition and explosives laws.
When the matter resumes on Tuesday, defence lawyers were expected to bring more pre-trial applications.
The State had hoped to call its first witness on Monday, but defence lawyers indicated last week they would bring several applications seeking to rectify what they claimed were violations of their clients’ human rights.
Three other in limine or pre-trial applications have already been dismissed by judge Eben Jordaan.
One was for the recusal of chief prosecutor Paul Fick, SC, another for the trial of three of the accused to be separated from that of the other 19, while the third related to a special plea by 13 of the men that the court had no jurisdiction over them.
The trial was scheduled to have started in May, but has been delayed by wrangling over legal aid and for the matters in limine to be adjudicated.
Apart from the complaints about music and food, the next batch of applications would also relate to claims by the men that authorities had intercepted privileged information pertaining to the trial. — Sapa