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SUNDAY SUN

Sunday 1 December 2013

Farouk Meyers long walk ends this Christmas

By NTJEBE GORDIN ON Friday morning, Farouk Meyer (36) got the good news! His life sentence for murder was reduced to 24 years in jail by the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA). And people sentenced for murder or culpable homicide before 2004 ha e to ser e one!third of their terms only " which means only ei#ht years for $eyer. %ut $eyer has already been behind bars for &' years. So he will wal( out of notorious Sun City prison lon# before Christmas) *n 2000+ a#ed 2,+ $eyer was sentenced to life for murderin# three men inside Club &2 -lay at Hillfo.+ on the /est 0and+ durin# a icious fi#ht. 1he SCA2s 3ustices A4har Cach! alia+ 3eremiah Shon#we and Stephen $ajiedt+ who heard the case+ said they did not want to reloo( the 5new6 e idence brou#ht by $eyer. $eyer claimed that he had fired in self!defence at one person only and that he2d been framed by the police. 1he jud#es wanted rather to loo( a#ain at $eyer2s life sentence. 3ustice Cachalia said it seemed that $eyer had been sentenced as thou#h the (illin#s had been pre!meditated+ which clearly they had not been. 3ustice Cachalia also said that he did not wish to prolon# the matter

JUSTICE AT LAST!
From left: Ben Stoop (Meyers attorney), Jaap Cilliers SC and Zacharias Zais Van Zyl, SC, for the state. any lon#er and belie ed the SCA should do the re!sentencin# rather than sendin# the case bac( to the lower court. *t2s been a lon#+ hard wal( to freedom for $eyer. *t too( &' years to come before the SCA on &7 8o! ember " where he was represented by 3aap Cilliers SC+ who defended $eyer on a no!fee basis. How did a youn# mo er and sha(er from 3obur#2s 9ldorado -ar(+ a con icted murderer+ who in 20&0 added 5escapee6 to his criminal resume+ ma(e his way from a prison cell to the second hi#hest court in the land: $eyer had not finished school and

Farouk Meyer, who spent 15 years in jail for murder. Photo by Ezekiel Morake ed and he went bac( to jail+ tryin# e ery day to #et bac( into court. He applied to the Constitutional Court+ but was denied access. He was assisted from the end of 20&0 by the /its 3ustice -roject+ which in esti#ates alle#ed miscarria#es of justice. Since part of $eyer2s case was that some of the in esti#atin# offic! ers had misled the court durin# his trial+ he also tried to #et the help of *ndependent -olice *n esti#ati e =i! rectorate. 1his+ too+ came to nothin#+ as did a 20&2 petition to the -ublic -rotector. Still+ $eyer pushed on " #atherin# affida its and e idence ia people li(e =a id >lat4ow " and finally+ ha in# compiled his documents him! self+ he made it to the SCA. 5Althou#h $r $eyer has no le#al trainin#+ he has done a remar(able job in puttin# to#ether these heads of ar#uments+6 said 3ustice Cachalia.

had no support structures and no trainin# in the law. He as(ed a relati e in -retoria who had some le#al trainin# to help with findin# someone to assist in findin# justice. %ut time dra##ed by. 1hen+ in $ay 20&0+ $eyer escaped from ;ereeni#in#2s <roenpunt -ris! on. %ut he didn2t try to hide. He had a different idea. He contacted the 3ustice =epart! ment and said he would hand him! self o er publicly at Sandton police station on condition his case was re! in esti#ated. He said he had proof that the forensic report dealt with by the court had been inaccurate. $eyer2s case was not re!in esti#at!

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