adminCourt Reporter
A SOUTH African apartheid soldier jailed last week for flying in and out of Zimbabwe illegally has been freed on bail pending an appeal.
Fredrick Wilhelm August Lutzkie, 52, crashed in his helicopter while leaving the Doddieburn Ranch in West Nicholson which he is leasing from the Gwanda Rural District Council.
He buried the wreckage underground with an excavator and returned to South Africa.
On June 6, Lutzkie pleaded guilty to 14 counts relating to aviation and immigration breaches and was handed a seven-year jail term, with half the sentence conditionally suspended.
Harare magistrate Vakayi Chikwekwe yesterday freed Lutzkie on $2,000 bail and ordered him to deposit $25,000 with the clerk of court as surety.
He must also surrender his passport, reside at 9 Chaplin Road in Bulawayo and report every Monday at CID Bulawayo Central.
Chikwekwe said Lutzkie was a proper candidate for bail.
“He handed himself to Zimbabwe authorities and pleaded guilty to the charges. He invested around R23 million in the country and it is unlikely that he will flee,” he said.
In his notice of appeal, Lutzkie’s lawyer Itayi Ndudzo said in passing a custodial sentence, the court failed to take into account that his client voluntarily submitted himself to the jurisdiction of the court.
“The court misdirected itself by failing to take into account that count five to eight arose from one action of flying in and out of the country without complying with the law. The count could have been treated as one to safeguard against multiple punishment arising from one action,” the lawyer argued.
“The court misdirected itself by justifying a custodial sentence on the basis of irrelevant, immaterial and unproven allegations of money laundering, smuggling of minerals and weapons and other contrabands.”
Prosecutor Michael Reza opposed the application insisting that allegations of money laundering did not need to be proved.
Reza charged: “The appellant volunteered information that he brought R23 million into Zimbabwe unprocedurally. He did not voluntarily hand himself to the police (after crashing) but hurriedly arranged an emergency landing strip for a lighter aeroplane to come and pick him up.
“He came back to Zimbabwe, organised an excavator, dug a hole and buried the helicopter. As a foreigner, if granted bail and goes back to South Africa, the police will have to look behind every tree for him.”
Reza, during the trial, said from February 1 to 28 this year, Lutzkie flew his helicopter several times between South Africa and Doddieburn Ranch where he runs a game farm.
He was flying without permission from the Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe and without immigration clearance.
derick.khumalo