Allan Boesak, once a celebrated anti-apartheid cleric, had his trial on charges of siphoning off foreign donor funds postponed Monday because he was too poor to defend himself.
He blamed the delay on legal aid officials and said it would draw out the agony that started with allegations by a Danish aid agency before the new South Africa was born in 1994.
“I am deeply distressed that this issue cannot come to a conclusion,” Boesak said after a court agreed to postpone the case for at least three months.
Boesak, 51, rejects the 32 charges of fraud and theft of more than $202,000 in foreign aid that his Foundation for Peace and Justice charity was meant to give to the poor.
His accountant, Freddie Steenkamp, was sentenced to 6 years in jail after pleading guilty last year to similar charges and to cooking the books that were shown to Scandinavian charities, U.S. pop star Paul Simon and others. A mystery donation for a lawyer of roughly the sum Boesak is charged with embezzling has contributed to the delay.
