Inspector questioned about suspect\'s rights

For about two weeks, the case has bogged down as the defence team, comprising John van der Berg, for Dina Rodrigues, and Charles Simon, for her four co-accused, challenged the validity of confessions made to magistrates and statements made to the police. The defence team contends that neither the confessions nor the statements were made freely and voluntarily. At yesterday\'s proceedings before Judge Basheer Wagley, Mitchells Plain inspector Don Engelbrecht told the court he was requested to assist in the early morning arrests of Zanethemba Gwada and a juvenile. He said both, arrested in different shacks in Nyanga, spoke English and had their rights explained to them in English. Simon said the juvenile\'s mother would be called to testify about Gwada\'s arrest. The mother would say that, after her son\'s arrest, she followed the police team to the nearby shack where Gwada lived. She would say she was present in Gwada\'s shack at the time of Gwada\'s arrest and that no rights were explained to Gwada at all. Full report on the IoL site