|
Police minister to pay R60 000 damages to arrested diabetic man
|
A DIABETIC man with a wooden leg has been
awarded R60 000 damages after his unlawful arrest and detention on a trumped-up
assault charge.
Judge Sullette Potterill in the North Gauteng High Court ordered the minister of police to pay this amount to Edenville salesman Jan Strauss. He initially sued the police for R500 000 damages after he was arrested while picking up his daughter at a friend’s house in September 2010. He was detained for two days before being released and thereafter had to appear in court three times on charges of assault and crimen injuria before the charges were withdrawn against him.
Strauss strenuously denied ever assaulting anyone. He said in a statement he had seen people milling around in front of his friend’s house when he went to pick up his daughter. When he stopped near the house, police pulled him out of his car and violently threw him in the back of a police van. Soon after his friend Raymond Smit was also locked up in the van. They were driven to Kroonstad for Smit’s blood to be drawn, but the doctor on duty refused as he could see Smit was not drunk.
Strauss told the police he was a diabetic who needed medication, but they laughed at him. He fell into a diabetic coma from time to time due to his high sugar levels. Even after his wife brought his medication to the police station they refused to give it to him, he said. Strauss said he was a prominent member of his church in Edenville and was very aggrieved at the way he was treated in front of the public and his children
By Ilse de Lange
The Citizen 27/03/13
Judge Sullette Potterill in the North Gauteng High Court ordered the minister of police to pay this amount to Edenville salesman Jan Strauss. He initially sued the police for R500 000 damages after he was arrested while picking up his daughter at a friend’s house in September 2010. He was detained for two days before being released and thereafter had to appear in court three times on charges of assault and crimen injuria before the charges were withdrawn against him.
Strauss strenuously denied ever assaulting anyone. He said in a statement he had seen people milling around in front of his friend’s house when he went to pick up his daughter. When he stopped near the house, police pulled him out of his car and violently threw him in the back of a police van. Soon after his friend Raymond Smit was also locked up in the van. They were driven to Kroonstad for Smit’s blood to be drawn, but the doctor on duty refused as he could see Smit was not drunk.
Strauss told the police he was a diabetic who needed medication, but they laughed at him. He fell into a diabetic coma from time to time due to his high sugar levels. Even after his wife brought his medication to the police station they refused to give it to him, he said. Strauss said he was a prominent member of his church in Edenville and was very aggrieved at the way he was treated in front of the public and his children
By Ilse de Lange
The Citizen 27/03/13
