Banned weapons Bill stretches law beyond borders
Courts will have jurisdiction to prosecute South Africans who contravene, even outside the country, provisions of a proposed Bill on the prohibition and restriction on using certain categories of conventional weapons, says a report in Business Day.
The Bill, tabled in Parliament yesterday, gives effect to the International Convention on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Certain Conventional Weapons, which SA has signed and ratified. If the Bill is passed, contraventions abroad will be deemed to have occurred in SA, and penalties will include fines or up to 15 years in jail, or both. However, DA defence spokesperson Andries Botha raised the alarm about the prosecutorial reach of the Bill. While stressing that the DA still had to study the proposals and that the party supported their noble intentions, Botha said the DA would oppose the Bill if it meant SA was going beyond the requirements of the international convention by legislating for prosecutions of citizens acting outside its borders. Full Business Day report