Showing posts with label framed. Show all posts
Showing posts with label framed. Show all posts

Monday, June 26, 2017

Framed Heinrich van Rooyen's life in Prison

We must find a way to un-frame him 
  
As most know, I have been visiting Heinrich van Rooyen at St Albans prison for a while now, every second Sunday if I am well enough to go.  But I had to go on Sunday, sick as I was with staphylococcus pneumonia but dressed warmly, masked and had a drip up. I also took my nebuliser with me just in case.
Heini was looking good and as usual overjoyed to see us.  We were also asked if I could see another prisoner who has a problem with his parole hearing and when I looked into his eyes, I saw that there was no killer there at all.  I am going to see how I can help him chivvy the legal aid board that deals with paroles.  But that will be a story for another day.  His name is Marius, and as I have experienced, a gently and soft man in the wrong place.
Because this was a good staff complement this week, everything went quite smoothly and we did not have to wait long to see Heini.  There was a bit of a scuffle because inmates have to sit on iron benches and visitors on wooden benches and my wheelchair could only stay on the side of the prisoners.  Not that it bothered me in the least.  I have met a lot of wonderful inmates during this time and they have all been kind to me, far more kind and considerate than the wardens.  But again, this particular group of wardens who work every second weekend really show their humanity and compassion.
In the visitors area is a shop that gets put up and taken down after visiting hours.  No one may bring any food into the prison and everything has to be bought from that shop.  Now here in lies a slight problem.   The shop is not allowed to make money out of the inmates.  There is a court order that the shop is not allowed to profit 0ff the inmates.  It can be found in the Correctional Services Act 11 of 98; Section 121, 122 and 123.  The shop should not be allowed to make an internal policy that is not in line with the law.   This law deals with goods  sold to inmates.
Every time I go there, I go with my scrap of paper that has written on it what the prisoner needs to purchase.  The prisoner is not allowed to go buy but the visitors are and in a wheelchair it can become something of a problem.  Nevertheless, we always buy bananas, tomatoes, Russian sausage, pies, niknaks, suckers and cheese.  Nicknaks and suckers are what you can use to trade for something someone else has that they need and you don’t have.  This internal policy of St Albans should be stopped.  
Over the last month, prisoners are being transferred without their permission (they must want to go) to other prisons (Kirkwood and Middelburg) but are not allowed to make a phone call home to let their families know that they are moving to another prison because the wardens cut the phone lines. This is an illegal transfer. More forced transfers are expected but because of no phones they are unable to complain to their families.  They can’t phone their lawyers.  If you go to the psychologist or the social worker to make an official call, you are being told that they are not allowed to make the call for you, although they are subsidised by the state monthly to make official calls for us.    This kind of treatment of the inmates proves that they don’t want any information to get out, just as I put onto my FB page today on St Albans.
The procedure on transfers states that an inmate must have written a request to be transferred.  Such an application needs approval and that inmate must provide an address of a next of kin that is staying close to that prison.  That is the ONLY reason the inmate would want to be transferred.  This is also apparent with what was done with the beaten up inmates on the Boxing Day 2016.  Many that were injured were just shipped out to other prisons so that there would be no coordinated procedure for ascertaining what had taken place.  It was blatantly obvious that AFTER the situation was under control, the wardens and dogs pushed and shoved the inmates into a corner where they could not get out and they were set about with batons, leaving an alleged 3 inmates tortured to death.  While I do not condone the behaviour of the inmates to stab wardens, there does come a point at which the oil boils over when no human rights of prisoners are given to them and they are in lockdown constantly and are never allowed out for exercise.  The frustration levels must have been the culprit here, but the wardens did not have to beat or torture people to death after they had secured the situation in three separate passages.
At least the inmates are paying for their crimes.  These warders make mob justice and corruption appear legal.  I have the names of the wardens responsible for this atrocity.   The inmates think that those wardens are just murdering gangsters and the inmates feel above them in their value structures. They belong in prison more than a lot of inmates.
Then I had a full blown asthma attack.   The St Albans Investigating Officer was fast to find a plug for my nebuliser and to help set it up and put the medication in.  The prisoners were concerned and the Investigating Officer was concerned.  The kindness I was shown on Sunday by the Investigating Officer and the prisoners was a sight to behold.  I wish I knew the investigating Officer’s name so I could thank him properly, but I will do that when I go back to visit Heini. As you can imagine, once the breathing was under control, we left a few minutes earlier than normally.  I did however, have the chance to speak with Marius Rondganger about his parole.  His case is also a travesty of justice.   And before I end off, let me tell you what Heini told me about his court case.  “At the end of the first half of my trial, Terry Price informed me that Judge Nathan Erasmus that we have to bring an application that he, the judge must be changed.  During the break, the whole atmosphere changed.  Terry convinced my family that it was necessary to change the judge.  He heard from a Judge friend that Nathan Erasmus told that judge that he’d found me innocent.  This was a trick forcing us to keep Erasmus.   That was the biggest mistake because from there everything went south.  The decisions made around all the Trial within trials were so biased he could not even give a reason why he denied my application to appeal.  This was total bias.  Terry Price’s move cost a man his life and his family 1 million 8 hundred thousand rand in legal fees.  For what?  To put an innocent man in prison for two life sentences and 28 years with no leave to appeal?”

It is a not so well-veiled secret as to why the 2005 murders of Victoria Stadler and Jessica Wheeler and by whom.  Most people in Knysna know who did it.  I have been told the names as well.   Drugs, dealers, young girls, lack of money and gangsters are the recipe for murder.  Who murdered those girls?  Why won’t the Independent Police Investigative Directorate open the case again?  Are they shielding their own or will it be too much of an admission of ineptitude if he is released and he can sue them for wrongful arrest and imprisonment?   The police want Heini to go back to court and the Judiciary want Heini to go back to the cops!!!  And in the meantime the years of sitting in prison continue unabated with little hope of a decent closure for this family.  They have all been punished. 

Monday, June 12, 2017

Why Heinrich van Rooyen Smiled when He was Sentenced



I asked him "Why did you smile when you were sentenced Heini?

 He answered - "If I did not smile I would have cried.  I had to think of something to make me smile.  The judge said that if the death penalty was still enforced in South Africa he would have no hesitation in giving me the death sentence.  And I thought to myself "And you would be sending an innocent person to his death".  Then he gave me two life terms and 28 years and I thought ... they have screwed with all the evidence to make me appear guilty but they have not managed to find me guilty of setting the car alight and those extra years is for malicious damage to property". 

 I have been in prison for 12 years.  I have to keep hoping because without hope no one can live inside like this.   I have to pin my hopes on Alan D Elsdon who is trying to get the police to re-look at the corruption and the perjury of the detectives in my case.  Christian Botha, the Private Investigator, does not believe I am guilty. Why would I rape and murder women who were available to me.  And why just two of them ... if I were a serial killer then surely I would have gone on a killing spree.  I can't even kill a chicken.  

 I am sentenced to life in prison without the right to appeal for the killing of two girls I knew.  One, Victoria, I had only met a few days before and I played pool and danced with her.  She gave me a lift to the entrance to the suburb I lived in. The other, Jessica, I was having a clandestine love affair with.   She had a boyfriend and I had the mother of my children.  Neither of us wanted our partners to know about it".  

 If we had a jury system as they do in England, Heinrich van Rooyen would NEVER have been found guilty and the police who perjured themselves would have found themselves in prison. 

Sunday, May 21, 2017

Heinrich van Rooyen - framed by the cops

I am sick and tired of people telling me that prisoners deserve to be treated as sub-human.  They are so judgmental – so many say that prisoners deserve to be there, that they are criminals and they did the crime so they must do the time. They say that they don’t deserve anything better than what they are getting, even if it is a gross human rights violation.  The horrifying thing is that the people with the most to say about this line of thinking are Christians.   Do they not realize that these prisoners are people too?    I have also come to a realization.  Putting a prisoner in prison is not only punishment for the alleged criminal, but a punishment for a whole family.  Everyone in the family is punished – not being able to see their loved ones is a terrible punishment for the family.  And it is so easy to end up in prison – how many people have done something wrong and got away with it … but even worse for me is the number of prisoners in prison for crimes they did not commit.   Those who see prisoners as sub-human – how would they feel if it was their father, their son, their brother?  How would they feel?
I am particularly concerned about Heinrich van Rooyen because he has been framed by the police and convicted of two murders of which he is innocent.  William Blackstone: “It is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer.”  I am in agreement with that.
Here is a chilling thought:  In a country like South Africa where justice depends on how much money you have, what is the percentage of innocent people in prison?  Researches in the USA write that there is an error rate of 4 percent in death row prisoners.  Still, with an error rate of 4 percent, the researchers write, “it is all but certain that several of the 1,320 defendants executed since 1977 were innocent.”  This research only concerns those who are on death row.   What percentage of the general population of prisoners are innocent in South Africa?  From discussions I have had with numerous people involved in the criminal justice system, I have been told that it is definitely not below 14%. 

I would love to get an Innocence Project off the ground and raise funds for investigators, good lawyers and better advocates to take on cases where the prisoner is innocent of his crime.   But I can’t do that alone.  Want to help me? 

Monday, March 6, 2017

My Visit to a Serial Killer

FRAMED 
I saw Heini (Heinrich van Rooyen) yesterday.  It was a very long day with only a short visit.  Everything went smoothly as we had already asked permission for Patrick to drive me to Medium B instead of waiting for prison transport from the gate.  We registered at the office and drove through the gates.  I got into the wheelchair to negotiate around the open trench where drains are being laid.  Like the rest of South Africa, this construction has been going on for some time.  At least at this visit, it was dry…the last visit we were slipping and sliding our way through mud.
There were no wardens to check packets and ask for the permission tickets, and there was no one around to say we could enter the visitors area so Patrick left me at the little make-shift prison shop while he went to tell some person in authority that I was waiting to see Heinrich.   His furlough into the depths of the prison ended up in a passage where he found numerous wardens eating and talking at full blast levels. 
He asked for Heinrich to be called for his visit and he was told “Go sit there.  We will attend to you later”.  Of course this was said with the greatest disdain for an ordinary mortal who was not one of the elite group that controlled prisoners.  That sent the bejesus up Patrick and he stomped off to find a warden who had more pips on their shoulders.
Finding one, he said, “Listen, you are the one with the authority here.  You had better sort out your staff.  I am not one of your prisoners and I will not be treated like one of them.  My wife has been waiting to see Heinrich van Rooyen.  My wife is terminal.  Time is of the essence.  She was even ill on the way to get to the prison.  Your staff are sitting and eating and I was told to wait? !!!”  He was angry. 
I waited so long that even the shop stewards went three times to the wardens to ask for Heini to be called.   He eventually arrived after I had been sitting in the visitors area for almost two hours.  I had forgotten to take water and I was feeling dreadful.  My pain injection was over-due but I could not get out to the vehicle to give myself my injection.   Patrick was sitting in the vehicle outside with our puppy and I could not get a message to him to bring me what I needed because you may not take a mobile phone in with you and prisoners can’t walk out the gates.  I was stuck until Heini arrived. Every time I see that boy, my heart goes out to him and I realize that I have grown to love him.  He is like a little brother to me and I will do anything for him.  This is not a psychological issue like when women fall in love with death row or life prisoners.  This is simple and pure compassionate and unconditional love for someone that I would have been proud to call my DNA brother.   I was rather upset because it cut my visiting time with him down, and so was Heini. We did wonder what the hold-up had been, and we both think it is because Patrick gave them hell.  How else can the wardens “get you back” but by making you wait and not calling the prisoner.  So I did not stay the hour that I would have liked to but we spoke fast and much was said without talking as well.
“You know Heini, when I look at you and how I have got to know you, you could not kill a fly”
“Hahaha, I can kill flies, but I can’t kill a chicken”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, my mom would ask me to kill a chicken to cook and I just could not do it.  Funky had to always do it.   One day, I tried.  I had that chicken, one hand on the body and the other on the neck.  It turned its head and looked straight at me”
I started laughing, imagining this young man who is serving life for the murder of two women, not being able to kill a chicken.  We both were laughing so much that the rest of the story came out in bits of sentences and words.
“That chicken knew it was going to die. Jinna, I let it go so quickly”, he said in between laughing. 
“Ja, and when its head is off it still runs around”, I said laughing.
“...there is no way I can kill a chicken and watch it running around with no head, blood squirting everywhere.  Ja, Funky had to do that kind of thing”.
“What are you two laughing so much about?” asked Henco Barnard, one of the shop stewards with beautiful blue eyes.  I had seen two people with eyes the colour of the sea on a calm day in that visitor’s room.  The other person was a warden. I told the warden he had beautiful eyes.  I mean, if you can’t say something nice to someone, then don’t say it at all. 
“You know what Heini” I said.  If I was 30 years younger, I would want to see what is in this broeks, I said laughing.  That elicited another howl of laughter from the two of us, imagining me saying that to a warden.
“Oh, Dianne, stop now …”
Another warden leaned closer to hear the answer better. 
“If you lose your sense of humour, you may as well be dead”, I said.  “Laughter is the sound of resilience”.
“Aha, you right”, both prisoner and warden responded.
Our visit was a 30 minute session of laughter – from one subject to another. 
There was a moment of silence.  “Yep”, I said.  That penis of yours got you into trouble and landed you here”  
Heini’s face become sombre and he looked up and me and said “I do not like the person I was.  I was not faithful and I slept around”
“Don’t beat yourself up about it Heini.  It is something that a lot of young men do.  You are not unique.  Did you ever watch the movie, Zorba, the Greek”, I asked.
He shook his head.  “Well, Zorba said that if a woman asks a man to his bed and he will not go, it is a sin that God will not forgive”, I said laughing.  His mood lifted.   He has a face that shows every emotion.  He can hide nothing.  He is an open book … his thoughts and mood easily read by anyone with an iota of humanity.
“I have to go now Heini”, I said, putting my arms up to give him a hug.  I don’t care that there are notices all around the visitors room saying “No touching”.  It may have been a five second hug, but it conveyed a million years of emotion.  He pushed me out until a warden took over.

I always cry when I leave him behind.  My heart aches for the person who is serving time for a crime he did not commit.