CHARGES against the notorious Basson brothers who were arrested twice earlier this year for selling bootleg wine, have temporarily been withdrawn.
Siem and Stefan Basson were arrested in August during a swoop by police on their farm Nuwedrift in Paarl North.
During the raid millions of rands worth of wine was seized, as well as bottling equipment and chemicals which are used during the production of cheap wine.
Unlicensed weapons and ammunition was also seized.
They were arrested, but later released on bail of R1000 each.
Two weeks later, the Basson brothers were however rearrested after illegal wine and bottling equipment was once again found on their farm.
This time that had to fork out R20 000 bail each.
Last week’s decision at the Paarl Magistrate’s court to temporarily drop the charges against them, was due to the lengthy forensic procedure which is now taking place on the products which were found on their farm.
A spokesperson for the court said that, once these studies have been concluded and investigated, the charges against the brothers will be reviewed.
It is not unlikely that they may then be once again arrested.
Siem Basson has previously been at loggerheads with the law.In August 2002 he was charged with illegal trading in liquor without a licence. He paid a plea bargain fine of R1200 with four months suspended for five years.
