Amnesty Hearings — Cape Town — 2000-09-27

LEON A MAREE: I'm just trying to think, no, not in 1989 no.

MR KAHANOVITZ: So you never attended a single cell meeting where it was mentioned that there was such a project?

LEON A MAREE: No.

MR KAHANOVITZ: And in fact the first time you ever heard of the Omar project, was when it was divulged at the Harms Commission, is that what you're saying?

LEON A MAREE: That's correct.

MR KAHANOVITZ: So you guys never chatted amongst yourselves?

LEON A MAREE: No, I didn't.  Maybe that's what Basson meant, that I wasn't, coming from a police barrack, you're inclined to work alone and in the military you work maybe in a bigger group.  I believe - with any of my operations I tried to cut off and do it professionally.  Nobody must know what I'm doing and I expected the same from them.

MR KAHANOVITZ: Yes, but there's already been evidence that cell meetings were held at various hotels, you would arrive there, somebody would be making a presentation or somebody would be about to make a presentation, so you would overhear things that weren't necessarily your project.

LEON A MAREE: Yes, I never overheard anything about ...

MR KAHANOVITZ: You never heard anything, alright.  And I ask you the same question in relation to the Early Learning Centre project.

LEON A MAREE: Also not, no.

MR KAHANOVITZ: Project Apie?

LEON A MAREE: No.

MR KAHANOVITZ: Now, is it so, would it be correct to say that you mainly worked outside of the Republic of South Africa?

LEON A MAREE: Yes.

MR KAHANOVITZ: And would it be correct to say that that work was being done on behalf of Region 6?

LEON A MAREE: Yes.

MR KAHANOVITZ: Now, I want to deal with your involvement in the Namibian elections.  Now evidence has already been produced that the CCB was going to focus its attentions on Namibia in the pre-election phase.  Did you attend the meeting where various projects related to Namibia were discussed?

LEON A MAREE: I can't remember it off-hand but I know that there were instructions that Namibia was a priority, yes.

MR KAHANOVITZ: Priority.  Were you aware of the fact that production bonuses were promised to people for successful projects completed in Namibia?

LEON A MAREE: Yes.

MR KAHANOVITZ: You were?

LEON A MAREE: I can't remember specifically who said, but I can recall hearing a conversation to that effect, yes.

MR KAHANOVITZ: That there would be financial rewards for a job well done.

LEON A MAREE: Yes.

MR KAHANOVITZ: Do you have any recollections to what sort of figures were mentioned?

LEON A MAREE: No.

MR KAHANOVITZ: Now, we know that you were Aitchison's handler.

LEON A MAREE: Yes.

MR KAHANOVITZ: What is your understanding of what the word handler means?

LEON A MAREE: A handler is a person who guides somebody else in covert work, you look after this person's interests.

MR KAHANOVITZ: What did you, when you introduced yourself to Donald Aitchison, what did you tell him you did for a living?

LEON A MAREE: I told him I was from the Security Police.

MR KAHANOVITZ: That sounds like a fantastic cover.

LEON A MAREE: I didn't need a cover because I already received a CV, he was - I was handed him from somewhere else and on his CV he was ex-Rhodesian and he was this big operator, so ...(intervention)

MR KAHANOVITZ: Can I just clarify, in fact he was an Irish citizen.

LEON A MAREE: Yes.

MR KAHANOVITZ: But he fought on behalf of the Rhodesians.

LEON A MAREE: In Rhodesia, that's correct yes.

MR KAHANOVITZ: And he styled himself as, amongst other things, a mercenary.

LEON A MAREE: That's right.

MR KAHANOVITZ: But you - are you saying you didn't need to create a cover for Aitchison?

LEON A MAREE: No, I didn't need to create a cover because my instruction with him was to put him as a sleeper, so I can't go and tell him I'm a businessman and you must then go and be a sleeper, it just doesn't work like that.

MR KAHANOVITZ: So what did you tell him?  You said:  "I'm from the Security Police and I want you" to do what?

LEON A MAREE: We need - first of all I just questioned him a bit when we spoke to see if he knows about Intelligence work and he obviously had ...(indistinct) background, he knew what a speaker was and I explained to him that that's what I wanted him to do.  He must settle himself in for 5 years, because at that stage the election was just about to come on, so that we could reactivate him after the election, three, five years time.

MR KAHANOVITZ: But I understand your evidence to be that you didn't know how he came to be recruited.

LEON A MAREE: No, I didn't.

MR KAHANOVITZ: Who put you in contact with Aitchison?

LEON A MAREE: Mr Burger.

MR KAHANOVITZ: He told you to go and meet this guy in a hotel?

LEON A MAREE: Ja, he gave me the telephone number of Mr Aitchison and his CV yes and told me I must go and meet this guy.

LEON A MAREE: Ja, he gave me a telephone number of Mr Aitchison and his CV, yes and told me to go and meet this guy.

MR KAHANOVITZ: How did Mr Burger get introduced to Mr Aitchison?

LEON A MAREE: I don't know.  I don't know if he was introduced to him.

MR KAHANOVITZ: So he just says:  "Phone this guy at the hotel, he may be of use to us.  You go talk to him"?

LEON A MAREE: No.

MR KAHANOVITZ: What does he say?

LEON A MAREE: He said:  "Phone this guy", he gave me Mr Aitchison's CV "and place him in Namibia."

MR KAHANOVITZ: And you don't ask any questions as to where this CV comes from or anything.

LEON A MAREE: No, well a CV was given to me, I don't ask him for that.  There were obviously questions in regard to Namibia, what he must do.  He must be a sleeper, that was instructions.

MR KAHANOVITZ: You see what I don't understand in your evidence-in-chief you said that it came as a great surprise to you after Aitchison was arrested, to discover that Aitchison before meeting you had met Ferdi Barnard and had met Calla Botha.

LEON A MAREE: It was.

MR KAHANOVITZ: But how is it possible, forget about you for the moment, as I understand the chain of events was that Calla Botha told Staal Burger about Aitchison's existence, that's how Staal Burger came to know about Aitchison.

LEON A MAREE: Yes.

MR KAHANOVITZ: And he must have told him that he'd met the guy, so how could it be a surprise to the CCB that Aitchison knew Calla Botha.

CHAIRPERSON: He didn't say it was a surprise to him.

LEON A MAREE: It was a surprise to me.

MR KAHANOVITZ: Except it goes, well  maybe we can canvass this issue with Mr Botha when he gives his evidence.  He deals with it in his statement.  But if I understand, your evidence is that if you'd known that Aitchison knew who he was really working for at the time that you'd recruited him, because he'd spoken to Mr Barnard and Mr Burger, you wouldn't have used him.

LEON A MAREE: Definitely not.

MR KAHANOVITZ: Just to clarify for the record, why?

LEON A MAREE: Because I would have been compromised.

MR KAHANOVITZ: So he played along and when you came and told him you were from the Security Police and so on and so forth, he just played along.

LEON A MAREE: Yes.

MR KAHANOVITZ: Now after Aitchison was released from detention in Namibia, he made a statement to the South African Police.  I just want to put certain allegations contained in that statement to you, just for purpose of the record, that statement, I don't have a copy of the statement anymore, it was handed up as an exhibit at the inquest into the assassination of Anton Lubowski, but I still have our heads of argument from that matter where we deal with the contents of that statement.  Statement dated 14 January 1991 and it was taken by Lieut Col Eager of the Brixton Murder and Robbery Squad.  Now Aitchison says that you contacted him, he obviously knew who you were by the time the statement was taken, and arranged to meet him at the Ascot Hotel in Norwood Johannesburg.  This is the first time they met, correct?

LEON A MAREE: That's correct.