Pretoria - The instructing attorney in South Africa for fugitive Prophet Shepherd Bushiri will be suing the minister of police and the national police commissioner for R15 million for his arrest and detention for hours without a charge.
Terence Baloyi, the legal representative for the Enlightened Christian Gathering (ECG) church leader was arrested earlier this month for charges of corruption, intimidation and defeating the ends of justice.
In the letter of demand served to both the Police Minister Bheki Cele and the National Police commissioner Khehla Sithole on March 5, it read that Baloyi would be suing both parties for R15 million respectively.
According to the letter, Baloyi was suing the police as a result of his alleged unlawful arrest and unlawful detention.
In that he was unjustly denied his liberty and free will, suffered grave distress, was humiliated and embarrassed by the police’s actions to the extent that his dignity and respect were gravely injured as well.
Baloyi was according to the letter allegedly arrested on March 1, without a warrant of arrest and detained by the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigations (Hawks), “for no legally justifiable basis.”
The police department’s heads have been given 30 days to make the payment, failing which, legal action would be instituted without any further notice.
The Hawks shortly after the arrest of Baloyi indicated that police had been investigating the legal representatives since 2018 in relation to the alleged withdrawal of statements from women who had accused the self-proclaimed prophet Bushiri of rape.
Bushiri commented following the news of his lawyers arrest that he was shocked and saddened that Baloyi and his legal adviser Alvin Khosa had been unlawfully kept in custody by police for eight hours.
Pretoria News