/ 22 March 2007

Fidentia boss back in court

Fidentia boss J Arthur Brown was back in court on Thursday morning as his battle to be released on bail continued.

A Cape Town magistrate granted him R1-million bail on Monday, but ordered that any surety he offered had to be approved by the Scorpions.

Since then, the unit has turned down the offer of Brown’s luxury Cape Town home, which it says was bought with the proceeds of crime, and has also rejected a property in Kimberley belonging to a third party, on the basis that this will not be enough to deter Brown from skipping the country.

When the matter came back to court on Thursday morning, Brown’s advocate, Klaus von Lieres, asked magistrate Eric Louw to rule that a guarantee provided by a third party was acceptable.

He said he had never, in his ”short career of 40 years” at the bar, come across a case where it was not seen as ”sufficiently kosher”.

Louw is expected to rule on the matter on Thursday afternoon.

Brown has been held at Goodwood prison since his arrest on March 6. — Sapa