A German fugitive facing charges related to several offences including letter of credit (L/C) forgery, has been extradited to South Africa from Britain.

Manfred Josef Zachel escaped from imprisonment in South Africa in 1997 but was rearrested when he landed, accompanied by British officials overseeing his extradition, at Johannesburg International Airport on 20 February.

Allegations denied

Allegations against the 69 year-old fugitive include the sexual assault of a young boy and the establishment of a bogus bank.

Zachel denies all of the allegations made against him.

Escape

The South African authorities asked the British to help extradite Zachel in 1997, the year he escaped from a hospital clinic in Pretoria where guards from South Africa's department of correctional services were supposed to have been keeping him under close guard.

Zachel had at that time already been charged with fraud and sexually assaulting the young boy.

African bank

According to South African investigator Makhosini Nkosi, Zachel arrived in the country in 1995, at which time the German announced his intention of establishing a bank in Africa.

In 1996 he travelled to the Seychelles and set up the Atlantis International Bank.

False accounts

The bank was established without the permission of the Seychelles authorities, but "a stamp bearing the name of the bank was allegedly manufactured in Seychelles...with a false date reflecting that the bank had been operating since 1994," according to Nkosi.

"Zachel also fabricated a false certificate of registration for the bank and allegedly forged L/Cs amounting to 8 million South African rand (US$1.35 million), using the name of his fictitious bank. He also allegedly forged other documents such as a bank guarantee, a certificate of registration of his bank and a payment order," Nkosi said.

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