Cronje's lawyers say he told all

Hansie Cronje's lawyers went on the offensive on Saturday in search of the indemnity from criminal prosecution the former South African captain is seeking from the South African government.

Cronje, banned from cricket for life after becoming involved in a betting scandal, stands to win the indemnity if the government decides he has told the King Commission all he knows of match-fixing.

But Judge Edwin King's final report, released on Friday, said it could not express an opinion on Cronje's credibility.

Cronje's lawyers said on Saturday the report shed no new light on the saga and his indemnity should be assured.

"Hansie is not surprised that the final report says nothing, because there is nothing more to say," said a statement, issued by Les Sackstein, the leader of Cronje's legal team.

"Everything that could be said was said in evidence last June. Not a single new fact has emerged since then because there was nothing new for the commission to consider."

A spokesman for prosecutions director Bulelani Ngcuka said on Friday the inability of King to decide whether Cronje had come completely clean meant the offer of indemnity no longer held good.

"Cronje does not have indemnity," said Ngcuka's spokesman, Sipho Ngwema from Pretoria. "The deal with Mr Cronje was that he must tell the truth.

Cronje's lawyers have said their client already had indemnity from criminal prosecution and that it would have to be withdrawn before he could face charges.

They said the cricketer was offered and accepted the offer of the guarantee, made to him by the government, during the King Commission hearings in Cape Town last June.

Saturday's statement criticised King for the reasons he gave for closing down the commission without reconvening the hearings.

"The surprise is that judge King continues to claim that he abandoned the hearing in February because of a possible constitutional challenge or that his enquiries are incomplete," the statement said.

"That is nonsense. On the day that he arranged those hearings he wrote saying that he would take no action in the light of the Heath judgement (the constitutional court decision that said a judge should not head an investigation).

"We believe the hearings were cancelled because the commission faced public embarrassment over its inability to produce new evidence from its protracted and expensive enquiry."

The statement said King told Cronje's lawyers that no new evidence incriminating their client further had been obtained.

"We asked in March whether any submissions had been received ... to the effect that Hansie had lied or concealed anything from the commission," the statement said. "Judge King's reply was unequivocal: 'No submissions or contentions have been received'.

"He himself has never presented us with any basis for suggesting that Hansie lied or concealed anything from him."

Cronje, the statement said, was adamant that he had fulfilled his side of the indemnity bargain.

"... Hansie is unshaken in his belief that there is no basis for removing the indemnity under which he gave evidence," the statement said. "That was always a matter for the national director of public prosecutions -- not judge King -- and as a lawyer Mr Ngcuka is well aware that his decision must be based on hard facts and evidence not speculation, rumour and innuendo."

The United Cricket Board banned Cronje for life after his admission that he took US$100 000 from illegal bookmakers.

Cronje plans to challenge his life ban by the United Cricket Board (UCB) in court in Pretoria from September 26 to 28.

Mail Cricket Editor