DURBAN - Holidays in Vietnam have bought more time for Durban-born Tyron Coetzee, sentenced to death in the country for drug smuggling, to lodge his appeal, his brother Elton said.
He said two public holidays and a weekend had made Monday the deadline rather than Wednesday last week. “But maybe they will only hear it later,” said Elton, who suspects there will now be another long period of waiting for any developments, like the two years between his brother’s arrest and his sentencing late last month.
Elton, who lives in Johannes- burg, said the family was gathering documents required by Vietnamese authorities for them to visit him in prison in Ho Chi Minh City .
“They need proof that he is family, so we are getting hold of unabridged birth certificates. I can’t see much happening in the next two to three weeks.”
He said someone in the family would eventually make the trip.
Elton added that the consular help his brother was receiving was limited by the fact that South Africa’s diplomatic mission to Vietnam was not in Ho Chi Minh City but in the capital, Hanoi.
The family believes Tyron, 34, was set up as a decoy to be used with the sole purpose of being arrested and could be a victim of human trafficking.