You'll never catch me, Prinsloo mocks cops

Published Mar 31, 2009

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By Zelda Venter and Graeme Hosken

The National Prosecuting Authority will not entertain the demands purported to be from former advocate Dirk Prinsloo, contained in an email sent to the organisation on Friday.

It is stated in the email that Prinsloo, the former lover of Cezanne Visser (also known as Advocate Barbie), is prepared to return to South Africa to face his trial under certain conditions.

NPA spokesperson Tlali Tlali told the Pretoria News on Monday that it is not clear at this stage whether the email is in fact from Prinsloo.

"Even if it was the case, the NPA will not consider entering into negotiations and arrangements based on conditions dictated by somebody who we regard in law as a fugitive from justice," he said.

Visser's advocate, Johann Engelbrecht SC, on Monday said both Visser and her mother were extremely upset about the email.

Engelbrecht said Visser feared for her life and that of her mother.

She earlier testified that Prinsloo on various occasions before and during the trial had threatened to kill them.

Engelbrecht said: "I have no doubt in my mind that the email is from Prinsloo. One only had to read its contents to see how clever and manipulative the man is. Just look at the demands he is making. In my opinion it proves out and out that he is a psychopath."

Engelbrecht said the fact that he had set demands for his return to the country and mocked the police for not being able to catch him also proved his arrogance.

In reaction to Prinsloo's statement that he had fled South Africa to "protect his then unborn child", Engelbrecht said: "This was news to me. It hit me like cold water."

Engelbrecht added he was not "bothered at all that Prinsloo had climbed out of his hole. In fact, I expected that an arrogant man like him would at some stage climb out of his hole."

He said this would in any event have no influence on Visser's trial.

"We are sticking with our game plan," Engelbrecht said.

The conditions set out in the lengthy e-mail, sent from a non-traceable server in the US, include the fact that "Prinsloo" wants to be tried by a "neutral but senior, no-nonsense judge".

"Prinsloo" even mentioned his judges of preference being Judge Johan Els who died in 2007 - and Judge Willem van der Merwe, who in 2006 acquitted ANC president Jacob Zuma of rape.

Prinsloo had been mum for nearly three years, and now the man claiming to be him said he would be caught only if he wanted to be caught, or "if some act of great misfortune or an act of God strikes me".

He said the law enforcement agencies were clearly no match for him and it was amusing to see how they followed the lead of "one red herring after the other".

He also had no kind words in the email for Visser, who claimed that she was an emotionally and sexually abused woman at the hands of Prinsloo, who she described as "a sex monster".

She gave shocking details in her Pretoria High Court trial about the perversions she was allegedly subjected to at the hands of Prinsloo.

But "Prinsloo" wrote: "What a heartless, shameless and disloyal creature Cezanne must be to put up her manipulative theatre production of 'tragedy' as a sex slave/addict victim.

"This dastardly conduct by Cezanne is sure to bite her in the back."

"Prinsloo" said in his email he was currently living in forced exile, mainly because he had to face "an unfair prosecution".

He said he was willing to return voluntarily to South Africa to face his trial under certain conditions, which included that he remain on bail and that he negotiate directly with the head of the NPA regarding the conditions of his return.

As a postscript to his e-mail, "Prinsloo" mocked the police for their failure to find him.

He asked that they stop spending taxpayers' money in their search.

The police have brushed off the e-mail writer's remarks that they had been unable to locate him, saying that no matter how long it took, they would find and arrest him one day.

Pretoria's Interpol office spokeswoman, Senior Superintendent Tummi Golding, said they did not see the remarks as a challenge and that they were currently investigating the e-mail that Prinsloo allegedly sent to the NPA.

"At the moment we can't say for sure whether this email is a hoax or not," she said, adding that police were following up numerous pieces of information.

She confirmed that the police, who had formed a task team with the NPA, the Department of Foreign Affairs and several other international policing agencies were following up on a number of strong leads on Prinsloo's whereabouts.

Golding said Prinsloo remained one of South Africa's most wanted suspects, and the police were confident of nabbing him.

"As we have shown in the past, we are able to catch criminals who are on the run and we do not doubt for one moment that we will catch Prinsloo, whether today or in 10 years' time," she said, adding that not only was the arm of the law very long, but also very patient.

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