May 12, 2008, 15:15
"Travelgate" MP Mnyami Booi was today granted a three-and-a-half month postponement of his trial, which was to have started in the Cape Town Regional Court last week.
The postponement is to allow him to use the services of his advocate of choice, senior counsel Jan Heunis, who is reportedly not available now. Booi, an ANC MP, is the only one of the more than two dozen legislators implicated in parliamentary travel voucher fraud who has not taken a plea bargain. His trial had been set down for the period of May 5 to May 23.
However, he applied last week for an indefinite postponement, citing a range of reasons. He told magistrate Michelle Adams he wanted time to probe what he claimed were unconstitutional methods used by the Scorpions in investigating him, and their alleged selective prosecution.
He also wanted to wait for an independent forensic report that five travel agents, who are to go on trial in the high court, have asked be compiled. Adams rejected Booi's request for an indefinite delay, and postponed the case to September 1, when it has been set down for two weeks. - Sapa
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