Lack of evidence against Cronje: Batohi
In the absence of crucial information from Indian authorities, disgraced South Africa
former cricket captain Hansie Cronje cannot be charged with any crime, public prosecutor in the Justice King Commission of Inquiry Shamila Batohi said on Sunday.
Batohi, who was the evidence leader in King Commission of
Inquiry, said in an interview that there is no evidence to
show that Cronje had accepted a bribe, was involved in
fradulent behaviour or had not disclosed all his earnings to
the Receiver of Revenue.
Batohi, now head of the Special Police Unit Scorpions in
KwaZulu-Natal, agreed with legal experts that Cronje's alleged
match-fixing fell within the realm of moral indignation and
was not a criminal offence.
It was an offence only in India and Indian authorities had failed to co-operate with the King Commission by refusing
to pass over taped transcripts of conversations between an Indian bookmaker and Cronje, Batohi said.
The Delhi police had blown the lid off the match-fixing scandal last year claiming they had a taped conversation of
Cronje with a bookmaker. Batohi had visited Delhi as part
of her investigations in order to gather information from the
Indian authorities.
At that time, Batohi had said the Indian authorities were
very cooperative though she failed to secure a copy of the
taped conversations.
However, in the interview to Sunday Tribune newspaper
on Sunday, she said, "Cooperation from the Indian police was not
forthcoming. In the end, even though Cronje had conditional
indemnity, we are sitting with legal questions about what to
charge him with.
"But this does not mean that at the end of the amnesty
investigations there would not be criminal charges instituted
against him. A decision will have to be taken by the National
Prosecuting Authority," she said.
Cronje had been granted provisional amnesty during the
Commission hearings subject to his speaking truth. In his
final report Commission head Justice Edwin King however
refused to give an opinion on whether Cronje had told the truth.
In light of reports that Cronje held 19 secret bank
accounts and had not disclosed over 10.5 million rands of
earnings during his tenure as captain, National Public
Prosecutor Bulelani Ngcuka entrusted prosecutor of Western
Cape Frank Kahn with the responsibility of investigating
whether Cronje had told the truth to the King Commission.
The reports published in the Sunday Telegraph of London
have been dismissed by Cronje as "a pack of lies".
Cronje, who admitted to having received money from
bookmakers for providing pitch and weather information but
denied having ever indulged in fixing matches, has challenged
the life ban imposed on him in high court which will hear his
application in Pretoria on September 26 and 27.
Cronje said the life ban was imposed without giving him
an opportunity to defend himself.
Mail Cricket Editor