7de Laan director in drug debacle

Pretoria - A director on the popular SA soapie 7de Laan is planning to file a civil suit against the police after being arrested for "looking like someone who uses drugs".

Henry Mylne, who has directed the soapie for over 10 years, was pulled over by police in front of Die Wilgers High School in Pretoria on Friday.

He stopped outside the school gates in his yellow Renault and waited for his friend, actress Shereen Swart, who was involved in a performance at the school.

Mylne drank an energy drink while he waited for his friend.

According to him, six police vehicles suddenly surrounded his car and pulled him out of his vehicle.

Mylne said he asked the police to explain what was happening, but he was immediately forced into a police van and driven away.

He had his cellphone with him and he phoned Swart from the vehicle and described landmarks along the road so that she knew where the police were taking him.

Pepper spray

According to Mylne, 25 other men were with him in the police van and at one point the police sprayed pepper spray into the back of the van.

"I have respiratory problems and when they sprayed the pepper spray I couldn't breathe," said Mylne. He also said he almost lost consciousness due to a lack of oxygen.

Meanwhile, Swart managed to catch up with the police van and told the officers that they had unlawfully arrested him.

According to Mylne, the van stopped at one point and Swart's 17-year-old daughter, Hankah, took a photo of the police van's number plates.

An officer reportedly forced her to remove the photo from her cellphone.

No paperwork

Mylne was taken to the Garsfontein police station where he was locked up in the cells. According to him, no paperwork was filed.

Later an officer told him "he did not belong there" and that he could leave.

Another police officer later told him it looked like he was using the energy drink's lid to sniff cocaine.

"I don't even drink, nevermind use drugs. They did not tell me why they arrested me or anything," said Mylne.

Officers begged

The officers apparently begged him not to say anything about the incident.

They reportedly also didn't want to return Mylne's car keys unless he undertook to keep quiet.

"I was lucky and I could get out, but what about the other 25 men - how legal were their arrests?"

At the time of going to press, Lt Col Katlego Mogale, the provincial police spokesperson, had not responded to queries.