Boeremag treason accused is seeking conjugal rights

CONVICTED Boeremag accused Dr Wilhelm Pretorius wants to have conjugal rights with his wife, Riëtte, she is pictured in the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria. Zelda Venter

CONVICTED Boeremag accused Dr Wilhelm Pretorius wants to have conjugal rights with his wife, Riëtte, she is pictured in the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria. Zelda Venter

Published Jun 5, 2019

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Pretoria - Convicted Boeremag accused Dr Wilhelm Pretorius wants to have conjugal rights with his wife in jail once a month and for three hours each private visit.

These private marriage visits must be handled by Correctional Services in such a way as to safeguard their human dignity. This is but some of the demands made by Pretorius in an application brought this week before the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria.

Pretorius said he was now 40 and his wife Riëtte Pretorius in her late thirties. They thus wanted to start a family as soon as possible, although he is serving a 25-year sentence for treason.

Riëtte, however, in March said in papers before the court that she was at the time about 19 weeks pregnant. Her lawyer at the time also confirmed to the court that she was pregnant via artificial insemination. That was during a failed application for her husband to be released.

At the time, she said she needed his support during her pregnancy. It is not clear what the position is at present, but in his affidavit before Judge Jody Kollapen this week, Pretorius stated at length the “frustrations” and hurdles they had to overcome to enable the insemination process. He said there were numerous attempts to gather semen at the Zonderwater Correctional Centre outside Cullinan where he was, but this proved problematic.

Some of the challenges included that Correctional Services took their time to approve the process. It was also not always possible to have the doctor go to prison at the same time that his wife was ovulating.

During one rare occasion, both the wife and the doctor were there and everything was in place. Pretorius, however, was not able to produce the desired product due to all the anxiety and rush around the process. “No stimulus is allowed at the Correctional Centre, which made the situation difficult,” Pretorius stated.

He blamed maladministration at the department for the delay in Riëtte getting pregnant. According to Pretorius, it took a year and two months, simply to get permission from the prison authorities.

He said when he and his now wife became engaged in February 2017, they agreed to start a family as soon as possible. Once they married in jail a few months later, he obtained the services of a doctor and paid for the costs involved in artificial insemination

Matsobane Mahlatse of the department's legal department said they did everything within their power to assist the Pretorius couple. But when they received permission in jail, they knew that they would not be able to consummate their marital rights.

Judge Kollapen postponed the application so that interested parties could join the fray.

Pretoria News

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