/ 11 February 2004

De Kock accused of fabricating evidence

Convicted apartheid killer Eugene de Kock was accused by a fellow inmate on Wednesday of fabricating evidence for submission to the Jali Commission of Inquiry into prison maladministration.

Hendrik Slippers testified that De Kock and his ”lapdog” — prisoner Koos van Gunt — held meetings with warders to discuss ways of discrediting witness Louis Karp.

They even had a copy of Karp’s affidavit from which to work, he told the commission.

Karp claims to have been raped and abused while awaiting trial for car theft in Pretoria Local prison in 2001 and 2002.

Asked why the two men would want to help the warders implicated by Karp, Slippers said they had probably hoped for special treatment.

According to Slippers, Van Gunt proclaimed he had been asked by prison head Nico Baloyi to help the warders draw up false statements.

”I don’t believe the head [Baloyi] would have asked such a thing because Koos van Gunt is a liar,” he testified.

”But this is what Koos and Eugene wanted everyone to believe.”

De Kock, a former police hit squad commander, is serving a life term after being convicted in 1996 of 89 criminal charges including fraud, conspiracy to murder and murder.

He has received amnesty on some of the counts, but two life sentences still stand.

Van Gunt, also a former policeman, is serving a sentence for murder, according to Slippers — who did not disclose the reason for his own detention.

Asked how he could be sure that De Kock was involved in the alleged plot to falsify evidence, Slippers responded: ”He talked along. If he was not part of it, he would not have talked along.”

It was then pointed out that he, too, took part in the discussions.

”Yes,” Slippers said. ”But I was just trying to find out what they were busy with.”

Slippers said he had no grudges against anyone. He decided to testify because he wanted the truth to come out.

”That which Koos van Gunt and the warders discussed to do in my presence I do not want on my conscience,” he said.

Slippers told the commission that De Kock enjoyed a close relationship with Baloyi and was given preferential treatment. This included unlimited and unsupervised telephone calls.

He could not explain why De Kock enjoyed such benefits.

Slippers also made vague allegations of De Kock trying to discredit a prison warder after a document apparently surfaced that linked him to an alleged plot by the rightwing Boeremag organisation to overthrow the government.

De Kock indicated that he would give testimony in response to Slippers’s claims.

Slippers concluded his evidence by urging the commission to have a fellow inmate moved who he claimed had been raped three times and was now being held with Karp’s alleged rapists.

”He must be taken out of there and taken back to the cellar [single-cell holding area] before he is raped again,” Slippers appealed.

Commission chairperson Judge Thabane Jali ordered that the man be moved while the matter was investigated.

The hearing continues on Thursday. — Sapa

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