A murderer jailed for life managed to get a challenge to parole conditions to the Constitutional Court (Concourt) without the help of a lawyer and without two ministers bothering to oppose it.
On Friday the Concourt threw out the case, refusing prisoner Paul van Vuren direct access to court without a lawyer, saying it was too important a matter to be decided when the applicant was not legally represented and the ministers had not responded to the papers.
Van Vuren, jailed for life in the Pretoria Central prison, challenged the constitutionality of a section of the Correctional Services Act which regulates the parole terms for prisoners serving life sentences.
The respondents were Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development Brigitte Mabandla and Minister of Correctional Services Ngconde Balfour.
”Regrettably, no notice of intention to oppose, or any other response, has been filed, even though the constitutionality of national legislation was put in issue,” said the Concourt.
In November 1992, Van Vuren was convicted of offences including murder and armed robbery and sentenced to death. This was later commuted to life imprisonment, backdated to the conviction date.
Van Vuren argued that until 1994, the Correctional Services Department usually granted those sentenced to life imprisonment parole after 15 years, but this was changed in 1994 so prisoners serving life sentences had to spend 20 years in prison before parole. He opposed the retrospective effect of this change.
Van Vuren has served more than 14 years.
Last year he lost a challenge to this in the Pretoria High Court.
The Concourt ordered its judgement to be referred to the Law Society of the Northern Provinces for it to consider helping the applicant if his case had merit, and to the state attorney and the two ministers. – Sapa