BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

15/06/2009

Barbie's boyfriend is in jail

Yazeed Kamaldien

SOUTH African police and prosecutors are determined that the country's most high-profile international fugitive, alleged child porn manufacturer and paedophile Dirk Prinsloo, will never again escape their clutches.

Prinsloo was arrested in Belarus on Friday after allegedly trying to rob a bank.

The former lover of Cezanne Visser, known as "Advocate Barbie", with whom he was on bail and on trial for sex crimes before fleeing to Russia in 2006, was arrested in the eastern European country and will stand trial there. If convicted, he will serve jail time in Belarus before being extradited to South Africa.

Andre Fourie, the prosecutor in Visser and Prinsloo's sex crimes trial in the North Gauteng High Court, in Pretoria, said the police would "keep him in custody" when he returned home.

Tlali Tlali, spokesman for Justice Minister Jeff Radebe, told The Times yesterday that the South African authorities would work with their counterparts in Belarus to ensure that Prinsloo did not escape again.

National police spokesman Director Sally de Beer told the Sunday Times that Prinsloo was "arrested in his hide-out on Friday".

She said he and two others, who were reportedly armed with a toy pistol and a knife, entered the bank in the town of Bara Novichi on Wednesday and demanded money from a cashier, but the woman alerted colleagues.

In March, Prinsloo copied The Times on an e-mail he sent to the national director of public prosecutions, Mokotedi Mpshe, saying he was willing to return to South Africa and face trial, but "under certain conditions".

In the e-mail, Prinsloo claimed he fled South Africa to ensure the safety of his then-unborn child and the child's mother.

In his latest missive to the local media, Prinsloo warned that his life was possibly coming to an end.

Visser's trial continues at the North Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, today.

Fourie said he would apply to have Prinsloo extradited to South Africa to get him back in court.

" He is a flight risk so he won't be granted bail again ," Fourie said.

Tlali said the state would "explore all avenues at our disposal to ensure he is legally brought back to South Africa to face charges ".

"He is a fugitive from justice who violated his bail conditions and failed to stand trial .

"He was arrested in Belarus and may be found not guilty. We don't want a situation where he is found not guilty and then act on it. We need to be ready to secure his attendance in court on South African soil ."

Visser has pleaded not guilty to 14 sex crimes involving children, saying she was under Prinsloo's total domination .

Source:

http://www.thetimes.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=1018087

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