A retrial for Dr Wouter Basson could begin within three months from permission being granted, the Constitutional Court heard in Johannesburg on Friday.
”The state believes it will be in a position to commence the trial three months after being given the green light to do so by this court,” Wim Trengove, SC, submitted for the state.
This emerged on the fifth day of an application for leave to appeal against certain issues arising from the 2002 acquittal of the apartheid-era chemical and biological warfare expert.
A successful appeal bid could lead to Basson’s reprosecution.
”A new trial should be able to be completed within a year of its commencement,” Trengove added.
Should a reprosecution be instituted, the state intends dropping 10 of the initial 24 fraud charges, which Trengove said ”overlap” each other, or are too complicated or weak.
The state seeks leave to challenge a decision by the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein in 2003 not to reserve for readjudication certain questions of law relevant to his acquittal.
Basson was initially charged with 67 criminal counts. After six charges were quashed and he got a discharge on several others, he was acquitted in the Pretoria High Court in April 2002 on 46 charges — including murder, drug trafficking, and fraud and theft involving about R37-million.
The state contests the correctness of the acquittal on the basis of trial Judge Willie Hartzenberg’s refusal to recuse himself on the grounds of bias, his decision not to admit the bail record as evidence in the trial, and his quashing of six charges related to alleged offences committed beyond South Africa’s borders.
The case, which has been set down until Monday, was expected to conclude on Friday afternoon. — Sapa