Publication: Mail and Guardian Issued: Date: 2005-11-11 Reporter: Sapa

Judgement Day for Tony Yengeni

 

Publication 

Mail and Guardian
Date

2005-11-11

Reporter

Sapa

Web Link

www.mg.co.za

 

Judgement (sic) *1 in Tony Yengeni's appeal against his fraud conviction and four-year sentence will be handed down in the Pretoria High Court on Friday.

Hearing the appeal last month, two judges grilled the state for supporting the former African National Congress chief whip in his bid for a more lenient penalty.

The prosecution had asked for his sentence to be reduced to a suspended sentence of 18 months.

Yengeni was convicted in 2003 of defrauding Parliament by failing to disclose a near 50% discount on a luxury 4X4 Mercedes Benz.

Initially charged with corruption and fraud, he was found guilty of the lesser charge in terms of a plea agreement with the state.

The car deal was arranged by a representative of a bidder in the government's arms acquisition process. Yengeni was then chairperson of Parliament's joint standing committee on defence, which oversaw the arms deal.

Yengeni claimed former national director of public prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka promised him a R5 000 fine in exchange for his guilty plea to a lesser charge.

Maintaining his innocence, Yengeni said he agreed only to avoid a protracted and expensive trial.

The claim has been denied by Ngcuka.

Yengeni resigned as an MP two weeks before he was sentenced, and is out on R10 000 bail.

He maintains that his failure to declare the discount was "only a breach of a Parliamentary rule and did not constitute a criminal offence *2".

A court official said judgement will be delivered at 9am on Friday.


*1       I think judgment will be handed down, but if is, it will certainly be Judgement Day.


^2      Fraud is a criminal offence and has been for some time now.