Pretoria - Former apartheid era killer Eugene de Kock was held for about two and a half hours in the parking lot of the Kgosi Mampuru II Prison in Pretoria on Tuesday, allegedly by members of the State Security Agency who refused him permission to leave the premises.
This is according to De Kock’s lawyer, Julian Knight, who told Independent Media that officials wanted to place his client under witness protection. “We have no idea why they want to dot this,” Knight said.
De Kock went to the prison around lunch time as he was called to a meeting with the area commissioner. When he arrived at the parking lot, he was told that he had to submit himself to witness protection and that he was to be taken to a safe place.
When De Kock refused and wanted to get into his car to go home, his vehicle was blocked by a vehicle from the State Security Agency, Knight said.
De Kock immediately phoned his legal team to secure his freedom, but minutes after advocate Roeloff du Plessis and his team entered the court building, Knight was phoned by officials to say that de Kock may go home.
Knight said as the matter was so urgent, he (Knight) was due to give evidence, as they did not have time to draw-up affidavits.
The team was, among others, going to ask for an order that de Kock be allowed to return home, as prescribed by his parole conditions.
“I will monitor the situation closely and we will immediately return to court if this happened again,” Knight said.
De Kock was in February last year placed on parole after spending 20 years in jail of a 212 year sentence.
Pretoria News