JOHANNESBURG – Businessman Adam Catzavelos has asked to enter into a plea bargain in South Africa over racist remarks he made last year on a beach in Greece and which resulted in his facing trial for crimen injuria, South Africa’s Eyewitness News reported.

Crimen injuria is a crime under South African common law, defined as the act of “unlawfully, intentionally and seriously impairing the dignity of another,” according to the South African Law Commission.

An application to have the case thrown out was under review, Eyewitness News reported.

The National Director of Public Prosecutions early on November 12 “thwarted his attempts to have the crimen injuria case thrown out,” iAfrica reported, adding that “Catzavelos filmed himself last year, holidaying on a Greek beach using the k-word [racial slur]” and “gloated about the absence of black people where he was.”

Sent to a WhatsApp group, the video turned up on social media and the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) took Catzavelos to Equality Court asking for a fine of R200,000 (about $13,378), News 24 reported.

On November 12, News24 reported that the case “has been postponed to December 5 for a plea bargain,” adding that “Catzavelos’ lawyer Lawley Shain revealed that his client intended entering into a plea bargain with the state, pending an agreement.”

“We want to finalize the case and we are entering into a plea bargain which we are negotiating right now. Hopefully this case will be finalized by December 5,” Shain told the media outside court, News24 reported.

Catzavelos reached a settlement with the SAHRC to pay R150,000 (about $10,040) over a period of 30 months and will once again publicly apologize for his comments, News 24 reported.
He was also ordered to do community service, iAfrica reported.