The Constitutional Court will start hearing a case on Tuesday that could determine whether South Africa becomes a haven for people sentenced in absentia in other countries.
It centres on South African-born Trevor Claude Robinson who fled Canada in 1996 after being convicted of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl over a nine-month period. He was sentenced in absentia to three months’ imprisonment.
He had been resident in the North American country for some time.
Following a request from Canada, President Thabo Mbeki consented to his extradition on the recommendation of former minister of justice Penuell Maduna, and a Wynberg magistrate found that Robinson was ”liable to be extradited”.
Robinson was arrested but set free after Judge Wilfred Thring ruled in the Cape High Court that because he had been sentenced in absentia, his constitutional rights to a fair trial were severely curbed.
Now the director of public prosecutions is to appeal against that judgement before the Constitutional Court, contending that it was not unfair that the Canadian court sentenced Robinson in his absence.
The director further contends that Robinson had in any event waived his right to a fair trial by running away from Canada immediately after he was convicted.
Robinson, on the other hand, contends that the High Court decision was correct and that he had been a victim of an unfair trial since he had not waived his right to a fair trial and was not aware that he would be sentenced in his absence. Therefore he ought not to be extradited.
At one stage in the extradition proceedings, Robinson also complained that the Canadian legal system was flooded with feminist ideas, according to one press report.
At the time of Thring’s ruling, legal experts slammed the verdict, saying that it would allow international criminals a way out of any prosecution, by absconding to South Africa between the time that they are convicted and punished to ensure they are sentenced in absentia, the report added.
”Mr Robinson also contends that the state has no right of appeal to this court from the Cape High Court in extradition matters and that the Canadian documents before the magistrate were not properly authenticated,” read a pre-hearing media summary issued by the Constitutional Court.
The state disputes both these arguments. — Sapa