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Breytenbach judgment to be heard in Feb

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Judgment in the case against former senior prosecutor and Democratic Alliance (DA) MP, Glynnis Breytenbach, will be delivered on February 28 next year in the Pretoria North Magistrate’s Court.

The lawyers of the state and the defence delivered their closing arguments.

Breytenbach, her lawyer and co-accused, Gerhard Wagenaar, are facing charges of defeating the ends of justice and contravening the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) Act, which prohibits unauthorised access to, and the modification of official computer content.

The state argued they should be convicted as they acted willingly when deleting information from her laptop at work. But the defense argued that the state has failed to make a case and asked that the matter be thrown out of court.

Breytenbach was suspended in 2012. Breytenbach and Wagenaar, are facing four charges.

State prosecutor, Raymond Mathenjwa, has asked the court to convict the accused saying they knowingly contravened the NPA Act.

Defence advocate, Barry Roux, asked the court to acquit his clients saying the state failed to make a case. Roux says NPA policy only protects NPA information, and not an individuals’ private information.

In October, Breytenbach told the court that she had only deleted files from her NPA work laptop to protect her privacy.

She was cleared on numerous disciplinary charges, but she resigned from the NPA in 2014.

She believes her suspension in April 2012, was a bid to stop her from prosecuting former police crime intelligence head, Lieutenant-General Richard Mdluli.

In June, Magistrate Brian Nemavhidi, acquitted Breytenbach and Wagenaar on two counts of defeating the ends of justice, relating to the wiping of the information on the NPA laptop, while she was on suspension in 2012.

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