This report covers the period 24 January 2000 - 31 March 2000.
The trial of Dr. Wouter Basson in the High Court in Pretoria resumed after its December recess on 24 January this year.
The court heard the evidence of only seven witnesses during the January - April sitting, all of whom testified on matters relating to the fraud charges against the accused. Proceedings in the trial were interrupted from February 7 to 14 when the state launched an application for Justice Hartzenberg to recuse himself from the trial on the grounds of bias and prejudgment of the case before all the facts have been presented to the court.
The first witness to be called was forensic auditor, Hennie Bruwer. Bruwer answered questions about the 800-page report of his seven-year and ongoing investigation into the flow of funds Basson allegedly misappropriated from the Project Coast budget for personal gain. Bruwer found that the money was laundered through an international network of companies of which Basson was at all times the beneficial owner and in which some of his colleagues in Project Coast, friends and family members had financial interests.
The court heard that documents relating to the financial dealings of the companies in question were retrieved from American lawyer David Webster's office after a ruling by an American court that he would have to make the documents available to South African investigators, despite client-attorney privilege.
Based on these and other documents from various foreign banks, Bruwer established that both the WPW Group and the Wisdom Group, and all subsidiaries controlled by them, were set up to serve Basson's own interests.
This was significant because central to the state's argument for the recusal of the presiding Judge, Willie Hartzenberg, were statements made by the Judge which indicated that he was of the opinion that the WPW Group of companies served the interests of the chemical and biological warfare project.
The state claimed that the Judge's remarks were premature and in direct contradiction to all the evidence presented, since the entire state case is based on the premise that Basson set up WPW in order to enrich himself.
The Judge indicated that his understanding of the matters relating to the companies apparently established by Basson rested on the understanding that the SADF had to act in a clandestine manner and that Basson was given the freedom by the Co-ordinating Management Committee (CMC) of the Project to create covers for people associated with the programme and to procure equipment and substances without explanation. The Judge indicated that the testimony of Gen. Knobel that the CMC did not want to know the details of Basson's activities was what justified his perception that it would take little to convince him that Basson had acted in the interests of the Project.
Justice Hartzenberg declined to recuse himself from the case. In giving judgement he said that:
As he understood the fraud section of the case so far, it was agreed that Basson was ordered to develop both an offensive and defensive chemical and biological warfare capacity for South Africa. The project was top secret and managed by the South African Defence Force's Co-ordinating Management Committee, on which served a handful of the most senior military officers. The need to know basis was religiously enforced and Knobel had testified that if it took theft, bribery or any other normally unacceptable means to acquire what was needed for the project, Basson was to get the goods. The CMC did not want to know where or how he did so, nor the names of people or countries involved , when, how and to whom payments were made.
To this end, Basson had been issued with three false passports by the SADF to support his cover as a wealthy international businessman with chemical interests.
Knobel testified that the SADF would have had no problem if Basson had been required to pay collaborators or spend money to help them create plausible cover stories in their own countries in exchange for their assistance. For example, share capital could be bought, backed up with flamboyant correspondence, to support such a cover story.
Knobel also testified that Basson carried out other tasks for the SADF, not connected to Project Coast, of which he knew no detail. Countries mentioned in this regard have been the US, UK, Belgium, Luxembourg, Cayman Islands, Poland, Libya and Croatia.
On 28 February during the cross examination of Hennie Bruwer, defence advocate Jaap Cilliers disclosed that the total budget for Project Coast for the financial years April 1987 to March 1993 was R270-m, including establishment and privatisation costs of Delta G Scientific and Roodeplaat Research Laboratories (R60-m to set up, R70m to privatise).
Operating costs of the two facilities averaged R21-m a year - R9-m for Delta G Scientific and R12-m for RRL - or about R105-m for the six years in question. Bruwer told the court that from March 1990 to February 1991, the project had R48-m available, of which R6-m was allegedly defrauded (Charge 16). From March 1991 to February 1992, the budget was R60-m.
During the cross examination of both Hennie Bruwer and project Coast accountant, Tjaart Viljoen, Cilliers stated that American attorney, David Webster, and Basson had operated at all times on behalf of the real principles and beneficiaries of the companies. These principles were not named by Cilliers but it emerged on the final day of proceedings that Justice Hartzenberg understood these principles to have been the SADF.
Details emerged during the testimony of Tjaard Viljoen and banker, Samuel Bosch of a luxurious lifestyle led by Basson, Philip Mijburgh, Wynand Swanepoel and other people linked to Project Coast and much of the court's time was spent hearing of the numerous overseas trips undertaken. Jaap Cilliers told the court in Basson's defence that on many of these trips Basson had been conducting Project Coast business under the guise of being an international businessman.
When the trial resumes on Tuesday 2 May, prosecutor Anton Ackerman will lead argument as to why the testimony of David Webster and other foreign nationals needs to be heard and why their testimony should be heard in their countries of origin. The application will be opposed by the defence.
It is expected that the evidence in relation to the charges of human rights violations will follow, with 30 witnesses, including agents who allegedly carried out the murders and scientists who made the lethal toxins used, scheduled to take the stand in the next few months.
This report has been prepared by Chandr� Gould and Marlene Burger. Chandr� Gould is a research associate at the Centre for Conflict Resolution working on the Chemical and Biological Warfare Research Project. Marlene Burger is monitoring the trial as part of the CCR Chemical and Biological Warfare Research Project. The Chemical and Biological Warfare Research Project is funded by the Ford Foundation, the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung and the Norwegian Government.
Centre for Conflict Resolution, UCT, Private Bag, Rondebosch, 7701, South Africa
Tel: (27) 21-4222512 Fax: (27) 21-4222622 Email: [email protected] |
