A warrant for the arrest of Pretoria advocate Dirk Prinsloo was issued on Tuesday after he failed to turn up for his trial in the high court on charges ranging from soliciting children to rape and fraud.
Judge Mahomed Ismail issued a warrant for Prinsloo’s arrest and provisionally declared his R20 000 bail forfeit after hearing that Prinsloo had phoned his legal representatives to tell them ”he was not returning from Russia”.
The state tried on several occasions to stop Prinsloo from travelling to Russia, claiming he would flee, but were refused by different Pretoria High Court judges, who said there was nothing to support these suspicions.
Judge Chris Botha in April granted an urgent court order to Prinsloo, prohibiting the National Directorate of Public Prosecutions from hampering his planned trip to Russia — at that stage his fourth trip overseas in less than a year.
He returned briefly to South Africa when his trial resumed last month, telling the court he would apply for the judge’s recusal from his criminal trial. The state was unable to stop him on being informed that he would travel to Russia again at the end of April.
Prinsloo himself had said in court papers he had ”no inclination to flee”, that ”imprisonment was better than living on the run” and that it would not be possible for him to survive indefinitely or even to find reasonable work in Russia.
Meanwhile, the trial of Prinsloo’s co-accused and former common-law wife, Advocate Cezanne Visser, was postponed to May 23.
Prosecutor Andre Fourie said the state and Visser’s Counsel needed time to reconsider their position, including a possible agreement that would shorten the trial. – Sapa