The Thulsie twins’ case faces yet another lengthy postponement as the wait continues for reports and documents from several international countries.
The terror-accused brothers, who made a brief appearance in the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court yesterday, stood calmly in the dock - one dressed in a jacket while the other was dressed in a blue jersey.
Tony-Lee Thulsie turned around several times to look at his family, who were sitting in the gallery.
As the State went through evidence and documentation they would be handing over to the defence for it to make an “informed decision” on centralising the case, the State asked that four arrest warrants and an affidavit be disclosed only to the defence council and not the media.
“These five documents still form part of ongoing investigations and it remains sensitive,” said State prosecutor advocate Adele Barnard.
Magistrate Simon Radasi agreed and granted the State’s request and ordered that these five documents only be seen by the defence.
“These documents cannot be given or disseminated to the media or to anyone else,” he said.
The State also made it clear that some documents and investigations were not completed yet, which included the mutual legal assistance documents from the US, UK and France and forensic reports, among others.
“We need to send a formal request (to these countries) for mutual legal assistance and I believe it will all be finalised in the next two months,” Barnard said.
She added that these documents should not impact on the defence’s ability to make an informed decision on centralisation of case.
“These documents are more in relation to the other counts, one to 11 (the 12th count being fraud),” Barnard said,
However, defence attorney Ashraf Parak objected to this, adding that the state was drawing from the matter.
“A three-month postponement was already given in January (for the State to get evidence from international sources).
“Now the State comes and asks for a further two months. The accused have been in custody since July 2016, the investigations have been going on prior to their arrest, it has been going on for over two years,” he argued
“This seems like it’s a never-ending saga,” Parak added.
Despite the objection, Radasi said the State seemed to have only a few loose ends to tie up and granted the lengthy postponement.
The case was postponed to July 5 for further investigations by the State and for defence to make a decision on centralisation once it receives the evidence.
During their appearance last month, the indictment document revealed that the twins allegedly planned to use firearms explosives and possibly poisons to attack the High Commission of the UK in Pretoria, the embassy of the Russian Federation in Pretoria, the US Embassy in Pretoria, the SA Zionist Federation and cartoonist Jonathan “Zapiro” Shapiro.
They were arrested in July last year in Azaadville and Newclare on the West Rand during several raids in the area.