The Wynberg Magistrate’s Court is on Thursday expected to make a ruling on the extradition to Australia of Anthony Peter Freedendal, who was convicted and imprisoned for child sex crimes committed in Cape Town.
He is wanted back in his home country in connection with similar child sex allegations.
Freedendal is fighting tooth and nail to avoid being extradited to his home country. Through his lawyer, Freedendal appealed to a Wynberg magistrate to consider his ill health when deciding his fate.
The 75-year-old has skin cancer on his head, tuberculosis, high blood pressure, diabetes, bronchitis and a heart condition, attorney William Booth submitted during Freedendal’s extradition inquiry on Friday.
The State launched the inquiry after authorities in Australia formally requested Freedendal’s extradition so that he can be tried in connection with 24 charges, including indecent assault, persistent sexual exploitation of a child and unlawful sexual intercourse.
According to papers before the court, the offences were allegedly committed from June 1999 to January 2003 and the alleged victims were girls and boys, aged seven to 11. Among them was a nine-year-old intellectually disabled girl.
Kicking off the extradition inquiry on Friday, State advocate Megan Blows said there were two prerequisites which must be established before a person could be surrendered to a foreign state.
In Freedendal’s case, some of the charges were so serious that they were likely to incur a sentence of life imprisonment in Australia. A similar sentence would be imposed for the South African equivalent.
Freedendal was arrested in Port Lincoln, Australia, in July 2011 and was granted bail. He was later given permission to visit South Africa, but with a condition that he return by November 21 that year.
However, he never returned. Instead, he ended up being arrested and charged with the sexual abuse of eight children in Cape Town.
He pleaded guilty to the charges and was sentenced to five years in jail in terms of Section 276(1)(i) of the Criminal Procedure Act.
It meant that only 10 months of the five years had to be served directly in prison and the rest under correctional supervision.