Tuliphant accused not in court

02 November 2000

Sonja Carstens

Pretoria - Ricardo Ghiazza and two other men, who allegedly abused the controversial Tuli elephants, could not be subpoenaed in time to appear in the Pretoria regional court on Thursday.

Andre Weideman, the senior Pretoria Magistrates’ court state prosecutor said in terms of the law, subpoenas had to be served 14 days before court appearances.

The original subpoenas, according to which Ghiazza, Craig Saunders and Henry Wayne Stockigt were to appear in court on Thursday, could not be served on them in time. The men were not in court on Thursday.

Weideman said new subpoenas, in terms of which the men have to appear on 20 November, were served on Ghiazza and Saunders on Thursday morning. The police are hoping to serve Stockigt's subpoena on Friday.

Augustinua Purwanto and Yanto Sugiyanto, two Indonesian mahouts who were also originally charged, could not be traced. Weideman said they would join the hearing once traced.

The case was scrapped from the regional court in Brits for a second time on 22 August, due to "unreasonable delays" caused by the state.

Instructions were issued that the case could only be replaced on the court roll with a written statement from the director of public prosecutions in Transvaal. Weideman received the statement a month ago, after which the subpoenas were issued.

The men are on trial on four charges of violating the Animal Protection Act. It is claimed they abused the elephants from September 1998 to May last year.

They allegedly starved the elephants and used equipment which injured them. Only Ghiazza is suspected of permitting the training of the elephants.