Thabo Bester pleads for ‘constitutional right’ to access laptop
Updated | By Mmangaliso Khumalo
Convicted murderer and rapist Thabo Bester has formally filed a court application requesting access to a laptop in order to prepare for his upcoming deportation case.
The deportation case is expected to be heard in February in the Free State High Court.
Tanzanian authorities deported Bester following his arrest in April in Arusha.
Bester fled to Tanzania after he managed to escape from the Mangaung Correctional Centre in May 2022.
Addressing the High Court in Pretoria on Tuesday, Bester said it is his constitutional right to have access to a laptop or any electronic device.
He further claimed that the state was guilty of a trial by the media.
“If the court feels like I cannot access it, I will accept. But I will say that it will be an injustice to my main application, where I seek relief for unlawful deportation and unlawful imprisonment. It would mean that I am deprived of defending my own liberty.
“As noted by the Supreme Court, if a person challenges their detainment and authorities cannot justify why the person is there, the person must then be given access to court, and I am asking for access. I am not asking for luxury.”
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However, the presiding magistrate told Bester that the material would be provided in hardcopy.
Bester used the examples of Australia and Denmark, where prisoners were given electronic devices to prepare for their court applications.
“They supervise everything I do,” Bester told the court.
“I shower in a cage, I exercise in a cage, I am completely by myself and there is no way I can access anything without them being next to me. There are cameras outside my door. I am asking for the very minimum in this situation.
“I request access to a device so I can view the press briefings that were made saying Thabo had to be deported or whatever reasons so I can type the key factors that I want to use as evidence to the unlawful deportation application that I have put as the main application.
“The court must take into consideration that 90% of this case, the state has tried it in the media, meaning 90% of the information is not accessible to me, and most of the allegations I don’t have access to. I don’t even get a newspaper, I don’t have a radio, I don’t have a watch, I don’t even know what time it is, that is how I have lived for the past 16 months.
“So, my circumstance of incarceration forces me to try and fight for myself.”
The matter has been stood down until 2 pm on Tuesday.
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