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Cape Town - A judge cancelled Dirk Prinsloo's plans to return to SA from Belarus next week when he denied Prinsloo release on parole. This after the two countries spent months to prepare for his deportation.
"Prinsloo's final parole application was heard in court on Wednesday, and the judge rejected his application. It was unexpected, but a judge is a judge and has the final say," a source out of Belarus told Netwerk24.
Prinsloo can now only apply again for release on parole in six months.
The former South African advocate became eligible for parole on February 19, after he was sentenced to 13 years imprisonment in a Belarusian court on February 2010.
The prison authorities from Mogilef-jail, where he has been detained the past few years, appointed a commission which would hear the cases of all detainees entitled to parole including Prinsloo.
"If they found that he is a suitable candidate for parole, the parole application would be referred to a local court which would make the final decision," the Belarusians previously explained.
Diplomatic conversations
State departments already organised arrangements for Prinsloo's return to SA because it appeared that he would be a suitable candidate for parole after seven years imprisonment.
This involved several diplomatic conversations between the two countries because the normal procedure would be to deport Prinsloo when his application for release on parole was approved.
It would have been the cheapest option for Pinsloo, who was once under the top-wanted on Interpol's red list, to be deported instead of being escorted as an inmate to SA. There is a pending court case against him in SA.
"The normal procedure would've been that he be deported by our migration department, usually to the country from where the person illegally entered Belarus," authorities explained.
In this case, it would have been to the adjacent Russia, but SA would've requested that their citizen be sent back home.
Another problem in the deportation was that Prinsloo would not have been escorted. Because there are no direct flights between Minsk and SA, he could disappear once again between connecting flights.
SA and Belarus also have no official extradition treaty.
There is, however, a draft treaty between the two countries, but this has not yet been finalised.
Outstanding warrant
In April, Belarus and SA found middle ground: The East-Europeans would deport Prinsloo from their side, but a delegation from SA would already accompany him in Belarus and take him under surveillance to SA.
The South African delegation was expected to arrive in Belarus on May 2.
Prinsloo would then be arrested formally by the South African delegation again on the grounds of an outstanding warrant which was issued by the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria in 2006.
SA was, however, informed that the Belarusians on Wednesday denied his application for parole.
Prinsloo and his former partner, Cézanne Visser, were previously accused in the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria on various charges, included crimes against children, when he was released on bail and fled the country.
The warrant for his arrest was issued in 2006 and Interpol was asked to assist in his search. He was arrested in Baranowitsji in 2009 after a failed bank robbery.
