High drama in court

BULLIED: MAGISTRATE STOPS BAIL HEARING, REFERS ACCUSED TO DOCTOR

- Marizka Coetzer

Bronkhorstspruit magistrate told notorious diamond dealer Louis Liebenberg not to raise his voice at her minutes before stopping his bail application in the Bronkhorstspruit Magistrate's Court yesterday and sending him for a doctor's checkup.

Liebenberg, his wife, Desiree Liebenberg, Magdelena Petronella Kleynhans, Johannes Petrus Badenhorst, Helena Dorothea Amy Schulenburg, Adriaan Dewald Strydom, Christelle Badenhorst, Nicolize van Heerden and Walter Niendinger are accused of more than R4 billion in fraud.

They face 42 counts of fraud (alternatively theft), five counts of racketeering, six counts of money laundering and various statutory offences, including contraventions of the Companies Act.

Liebenberg was sent for medical observation during his bail application after getting into a heated debate with the magistrate and making various accusations against the magistrate, the court and even the minister of correctional services.

"They took me to the head of the prison, where I acted and I heard Pieter Groenewald's voice on the phone," he said.

"You know Groenewald talks a bit retarded, you can hear it's him, you can clearly hear it's him. He said give that man a hard time in prison," he said.