Police Falsely Arrest and Seriously Injure Civilian
20080222 Feb 22 2008 –
Afrikaner farmer Ettienne Bernard Terblanche, 40, was awarded damages in the amount of R603,701 plus court costs by the Pretoria High Court -- which the SA Police Service will have to pay him for a false arrest in 2005.The farmer was arrested and driven around so roughly by the then-commander of the Cumberland police station that he suffered serious back damage. And the commander then refused hospital treatment and sent him on transport to the Thabazimbi law court - where the charges were dropped at once. Terblanche had been arrested for killing a hippo -- even though he had obtained a legal permit from the Department of Environment beforehand to shoot an aggressive, rogue hippo which was attacking workers and damaging crops.He and his nephew had gone to shoot the animal at the riverside, but had only injured the animal. They traced the injured hippo to the middle of the river and his nephew had then shot it dead.They dragged the animal to his own farm and slaughtered it there. The Cumberland police showed up at the farm shortly thereafter and Terblanche had shown them the legal hunting permit to shoot this animal.Then police inspector M I Mogale -- who has died since then of natural causes -- had shown up and accused Terblanche of destroying a fence (on his own farm) in order to drag the animal through it.
· Terblanche was arrested very roughly by a large police force -- his legal rifle was confiscated, together with his boat and tractor, as well as the meat - which had been earmarked for distribution among the workers. Mogale himself had dumped the farmer into the back of a police van and then had driven him 'very roughly' to the police station - in fact at such a high speed that the farmer was dropped several times onto the floor and had hit his head against the roof of the van. During this drive his back was injured so badly that he was unable to walk to the police station. Mogale had then dragged him to the police station instead and dumped him on the floor in front of the charge counter. Mr Terblanche had lain there in great pain until his wife showed up - and her requests to take him to hospital were denied. Terblanche then was dumped back into the police van in full view of many onlookers and friends from an auditor's firm and taken to Thabazimbi magistrate's court, still suffering incredible pain enroute. At the court, he again had to be physically carried into court by the police constables - he could not walk.At the law court, he was able to prove that he had a license to shoot the rogue animal and the charges against him were the immediately withdrawn. After his ordeal required extensive treatment and bedrest for six weeks at the farm - medical reports submitted to the court showed that his spine had been knocked out of allignment because of the falls sustained during the drive.
· Judge Visser ruled that the police officer Mogale's treatment of the Afrikaner farmer had been 'exceedingly brutal and unwarranted'.
· 'It can be deduced from the police officer's behaviour throughout the arrest that Mogale had had 'an inappropriate personal motive, and it was unforgiveable that he had refused an ambulance and refused to take the injured farmer to hospital. "Mr Terblanche was robbed illegally of his freedom for five hours, was driven around under life-threatening circumstances and also, no apologies nor explanations were ever given to him by the police,' the judge ruled when awarding the cash amount.
