The Boeremag treason trial may be delayed yet again - this time because of a planned urgent application to stop some of the accused being moved from individual to communal cells.
Defence counsel Piet Pistorius told Judge Eben Jordaan he would meet with the Correctional Services' attorney today to try to avert his having to bring an application to enforce his clients' rights.
The Boeremag accused held at Pretoria local prison have complained bitterly about plans to move them from their present single cells into communal cells.
Pistorius told the court the issue was not only psychological harm, but also physical injury.
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The court was previously told that the jailed accused had received death threats from fellow accused daily, and feared for their lives.
Judge Jordaan will also deliver judgment on an application to forbid the media from publishing the name and image of the next state witness, who was supposed to have started testifying last week.
The prosecution argued that the witness, now only known as Mr C, and his wife - also a state witness - were in witness protection, but had re-settled in a new community. He had accepted a job with an international company, but his future and job might be in jeopardy if his involvement in the case became known.
Prosecutor Dries van Rensburg said the only limit to press freedom would be that the witness's name and image may not be used, but the trial would carry on in an open court.
The accused opposed the application, saying Mr C's identity was well known to the accused and the media and that his name had already been used in press reports.
It was argued that the accused's names and photographs were regularly used in the media, along with the allegations against them while they were at this stage still deemed innocent and that it was unfair that they were identified while a "self-confessed terrorist and criminal" enjoyed special protection.
The trial continues. - Sapa
- This article was originally published on page 6 of Cape Times on October 19, 2004
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