By Michelle Pietersen
Staff Reporter
The Cape Argus
After 11 days in an overcrowded prison cell in Cambodia, the South African man charged with manslaughter will have to wait a few more days before he is freed.
Thirteen days ago Andre Bester was arrested after a jetski accident in which his friend, Capetonian Paul Hutchins, was killed.
The two were enjoying a holiday to celebrate Hutchins's birthday at a place a few hours outside the town in which both lived and worked, when the tragic accident occurred.
Bester's father, Jan Bester, said a judge had granted his son bail at a court hearing on Tuesday, but that Andre would only be released on Monday. The amount of bail to be posted was not revealed.
Bester said Andre would also have to stay in the Asian country pending his hearing, which could take as long as two months or more.
Following the incident, both families were adamant that it was "a complete freak accident".
Law expert and director of the Institute for Accountability in Southern Africa, advocate Paul Hoffman, agreed that the Cambodian police had to have sufficient reasons to arrest Bester prior to a proper investigation into the incident, as is usually done in South Africa.
"If one assumes that Cambodian law is similar to South African, then the issue is whether he drove his jetski in a manner which was so reckless that it did not comply with the standards of a reasonable jetskier," said Hoffman.
He added that if police had arrested him immediately, it suggested that Bester had driven recklessly enough to render him liable of the consequences.
Hoffman said he was not surprised that the police had arrested Bester, because a "human life had ended in their jurisdiction".
Given that Bester was a foreigner, there was "every chance that he could run away", he said.
In terms of why Bester was granted bail without an immediate release, Hoffman said the conditions of the bail were to guarantee that he would "answer to the court".
"A process needs to be followed to work out if he was negligent or not. And if he was, he has to face the music."
Bester's father would not go into the details of the case but said that "certain procedures" needed to be followed to ensure his release on Monday.
He said the 27 year-old had been "devastated" when he had told him that he would be incarcerated for a few more days.
"When we told him, he did not take it too well; the lawyer and I then explained it to him and he understood," said Bester. He said he hoped to meet the Hutchins family when they arrived in Cambodia.
En route to Cambodia on Tuesday, Hutchins's sister, Judy Saggers, said the journey to the foreign country had been an emotional one and that the family was "terribly sad about Andre's arrest".
Saggers, her sister and mother are due to arrive in Cambodia on Wednesday. They planned to take three days to finalise Paul's affairs and to see where he had lived so happily.
She said the family hoped the trip would help them to get closure.
Staff Reporter
The Cape Argus
After 11 days in an overcrowded prison cell in Cambodia, the South African man charged with manslaughter will have to wait a few more days before he is freed.
Thirteen days ago Andre Bester was arrested after a jetski accident in which his friend, Capetonian Paul Hutchins, was killed.
The two were enjoying a holiday to celebrate Hutchins's birthday at a place a few hours outside the town in which both lived and worked, when the tragic accident occurred.
'When we told him, he did not take it too well'
Bester's father, Jan Bester, said a judge had granted his son bail at a court hearing on Tuesday, but that Andre would only be released on Monday. The amount of bail to be posted was not revealed.
Bester said Andre would also have to stay in the Asian country pending his hearing, which could take as long as two months or more.
Following the incident, both families were adamant that it was "a complete freak accident".
Law expert and director of the Institute for Accountability in Southern Africa, advocate Paul Hoffman, agreed that the Cambodian police had to have sufficient reasons to arrest Bester prior to a proper investigation into the incident, as is usually done in South Africa.
"If one assumes that Cambodian law is similar to South African, then the issue is whether he drove his jetski in a manner which was so reckless that it did not comply with the standards of a reasonable jetskier," said Hoffman.
He added that if police had arrested him immediately, it suggested that Bester had driven recklessly enough to render him liable of the consequences.
Hoffman said he was not surprised that the police had arrested Bester, because a "human life had ended in their jurisdiction".
Given that Bester was a foreigner, there was "every chance that he could run away", he said.
In terms of why Bester was granted bail without an immediate release, Hoffman said the conditions of the bail were to guarantee that he would "answer to the court".
"A process needs to be followed to work out if he was negligent or not. And if he was, he has to face the music."
Bester's father would not go into the details of the case but said that "certain procedures" needed to be followed to ensure his release on Monday.
He said the 27 year-old had been "devastated" when he had told him that he would be incarcerated for a few more days.
"When we told him, he did not take it too well; the lawyer and I then explained it to him and he understood," said Bester. He said he hoped to meet the Hutchins family when they arrived in Cambodia.
En route to Cambodia on Tuesday, Hutchins's sister, Judy Saggers, said the journey to the foreign country had been an emotional one and that the family was "terribly sad about Andre's arrest".
Saggers, her sister and mother are due to arrive in Cambodia on Wednesday. They planned to take three days to finalise Paul's affairs and to see where he had lived so happily.
She said the family hoped the trip would help them to get closure.
No comments:
Post a Comment