MAN SENTENCED TO 30 YEARS FOR DOUBLE MURDER
The High Court of South Africa: The Mpumalanga High Court sitting in Delmas has convicted and sentenced Francois Pretorius (45) of Rustfontein farm in Bethal to 30 years imprisonment after he was found guilty of the murder of Johannes Andries Buekes and his wife, Ibel.
On Section105 A, Plea and sentence agreement between the state and the defense, it was agreed that the accused will plead guilty on two counts of murder. In his plea and sentencing agreement, Pretorius told the court that on 18 March 2020, the victims came to visit him in his house in Rustfontein and they had coffee. While drinking it, a confrontational argument ensued. He suddenly assaulted the victims with fists and with a torch several times. He loaded the victims’ bodies inside the boot of their vehicle, drove off with them to an open veld then abandoned the vehicle near Bethal dam with the bodies inside. He then took the victims cellphones, wallets and jewellery and fled the scene.
The postmortem revealed that the cause of death was the injuries sustained during the attack.
The court found no factors to deviate from the prescribed minimum sentence. Pretorius was sentenced to fifteen years imprisonment on each count of murder, five years imprisonment for count 2 to run concurrently with the sentence imposed on count 1, the effective sentence being 25 years direct imprisonment.
The NPA acknowledges the conviction and sentence.
