Editorial
Weekly goes to South Africa to investigate the Passport Scandal!
Radovan Krejcir got his passport legitimately!
In our effort to get to the bottom of the ongoing scandal involving the issue of another Seychelles Passport under a false name, Le Nouveau Seychelles Weekly has established contact with Mr. Radovan Krejcir, in detention in a South African jail, at the Modderbee Prison in Benoni. We can now confirm that Mr. Radovan Krejcir obtained the passport through the normal procedures with the approval and help of people high up in the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
At this stage we have decided to eliminate Mr. Ronald Fock-Tave completely from of our investigation. We firmly believe that he was not involved in granting or in assisting Radovan Krejcir in any way in obtaining the passport. We have very strong evidence to convince us of the fact that Fock-Tave was kept in total darkness about the arrangement to issue the passport to the Czech fugitive. Radovan Krejcir is convinced that he will not be sent to the Czech Republic to face the music. He demonstrated that by handing himself back to the authorities in South Africa last week.
After eight days of being “missing in action”, international “fugitive” Radovan Krejcir handed himself over to police. The Czech Republic tycoon surrendered himself at the Kempton Park police station at 11:00am on Wednesday, 13/06/07, but arrangement was instead made to hand himself over to Interpol at the nearby offices of his lawyer later the same day.
Due to a legal technicality, Krejcir strolled out of Modderbee Prison on June 4 and, for over a week, Interpol and the state had no idea where their high-profile suspect was. Radovan was arrested earlier this year, in April when he tried to enter South Africa on an alleged fake passport. This newspaper is now certain that Radovan Krejcir traveled into South Africa on a genuine Seychelles Passport, albeit under a false name. He was arrested at O R Tambo International Airport and has been fighting for bail ever since. He was eventually released, on a high court order, because the 40 days that the state had to receive official extradition papers from the Czech Republic had expired.
There was also a bungle when Interpol came to re-arrest him at the prison, but was told that no more prisoners would be set free that day - despite an after-hours agreement struck with his defense team.
Krejcir’s lawyer, Hugo van der Westhuizen, is arguing for his client to be released on bail because Interpol had acted in bad faith. Van der Westhuizen claimed Interpol had indicated they would arrest him under the immigration law - which means Krejcir, 39, would be deported like any other illegal immigrant - but instead arrested him under an extradition warrant.
A deportation would mean Krejcir is sent back to the Seychelles, where he is a naturalized citizen, while an extradition would see him flown back to the Czech Republic, where he faces possible life behind bars. The ‘Weekly’ is in touch with Mr. Radovan’s lawyers and we will keep our readers informed as and when we receive some credible information.
