Two Cape Town brothers are reportedly considering a civil claim after charges of sabotage against them were dropped yesterday.
Jaco and Chris Conradie were accused of originating a hoax e-mail that spread around the country during mid-September last year. The e-mail purported to be a news flash from CNN saying South Africans had possibly been involved in the American attacks.
"The US secretary of state, Colin Powell, revealed late last night that there is a strong possibility that South Africans and possibly the South African government might be involved in the terrorism attacks," the message begins. It went on to say that the possible motive is the US walkout at the racism conference in Durban.
The brothers allegedly sent the e-mail to a small number of friends as a joke but it soon spread far enough to see it popping into inboxes all over the country.
The government reacted by branding the hoax a "piece of psychological and financial terrorism", and vowing to track down the perpetrators. Sharp fluctuations in the rand and in JSE share prices were blamed on the e-mail even though it was swiftly identified as a hoax.
The Conradies were arrested a few days later amid speculation that they could be charged with fraud or even treason, and faced jail terms of 25 years.
Yesterday the State withdrew the charges of sabotage against the brothers but gave no reason for the reversal.
Sapa reports that the brothers` attorney, Morne Bindell, said the State`s case had been ill-conceived and the arrests were made before an investigation. He said the two were considering the possibility of a civil claim.
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