The South African Police Service will have to establish if Dirk Prinsloo — accused of sex crimes — is in the Russian Federation as suspected before Interpol can help in the search, police said on Wednesday.
Prinsloo allegedly jumped bail and stayed on in Russia instead of returning for his trial in the Pretoria High Court.
Superintendent Ronnie Naidoo said once Prinsloo’s whereabouts is known, Interpol can distribute a ”wanted-person notice” to ask other police agencies to help with his arrest.
”He would be on the wanted-person checklist so that if he wants to go through any borders he would be arrested,” Naidoo said.
On Tuesday, Judge Mahomed Ismail issued a warrant for Prinsloo’s arrest and provisionally declared his R20 000 bail forfeit after hearing that Prinsloo told his legal representatives by phone that ”he was not returning from Russia”.
”If he is there [Russia] he would be picked up, and formal extradition proceedings can begin. South Africa does have a formal extradition agreement with Russia,” Naidoo confirmed.
He said even if Prinsloo is not in Russia, police should be able to find him. ”We will follow the paper trail,” he said.
Prinsloo was arrested in 2002 with his then mistress Cezanne Visser — nicknamed ”Advocate Barbie” — at their home in Centurion in Pretoria.
In recent months the state tried to stop Prinsloo from travelling to Russia, claiming he would flee, but was refused by different judges, who said there was nothing to support these suspicions.
Judge Chris Botha in April granted Prinsloo an urgent order prohibiting the National Directorate of Public Prosecutions from hampering his planned trip to Russia — then 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 trial.
The state could not stop him going to Russia again at the end of April.
Prinsloo 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. — Sapa