The Pretoria High Court has set aside rightwinger Eugene Terre’Blanche’s warrant of arrest and has told the Department of Correctional Services to release him from Potchefstroom prison immediately, following his arrest on Saturday for an alleged parole violation.
”I have no hesitation to order that his warrant of arrest be set aside and that he be immediately released. There is no reason why the costs of today should not be borne by the respondent [the department],” said Judge Hekkie Daniels.
Terre’Blanche was arrested on Sunday after giving a religious talk at the Bethlehem Town Hall.
His lawyer, Gerrie Basson, said this is what his client has been doing to earn an income since his release on parole from Potchefstroom prison on June 11 this year.
Under Terre’Blanche’s parole conditions he may not leave the magisterial districts of Ventersdorp and Potchefstroom without permission.
Basson said Terre’Blanche was to speak in Wolmaransstad but the Department of Correctional Services refused to give permission for this, despite having done so in the past.
Basson and Terre’Blanche asked the High Court in Pretoria on Saturday to overturn the department’s refusal.
An agreement was reached with the department at court on Saturday. This was confirmed by Daniels on Saturday evening in time for Terre’Blanche to attend Sunday’s meeting in Bethlehem.
”But Correctional Services then issued a warrant for Terre’Blanche’s arrest on Sunday because he made the trip to Pretoria to attend his own hearing on Saturday. This is a blatant violation of his constitutional rights,” Basson said.
Terre’Blanche, the former leader of the ultra-right-wing Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging, was released from prison in June after serving three years of a five-year sentence for the attempted murder of security guard Paul Motshabi in 1996. — Sapa