Port Elizabeth - Police instructed “middleman” Luthando Siyoni to “implicate” murder accused Christopher Panayiotou, according to a recorded conversation which was read out in the Port Elizabeth High Court on Friday.
Luthando Siyoni was on the the stand for the sixth day, this time under cross examination by the defence, in the ongoing murder trial involving Panayiotou and his two co-accused.
According to Advocate Terry Price SC, the conversations took place at the police's Organised Crime Unit with at least five police officers present “pressuring” Siyoni to implicate the businessman.
“You were told what to say and what to do,” Price put to Siyoni.
An excerpt of the recording read: “The last call is the last call. That is your last chance, you wont be able to call him [Christopher] again and again. This call you're going to make now you must think carefully before you make it, you must know what you are going to say.
“He must know the seriousness, he [Christopher] must know that you are panicking.”
“You need to tell him [Christopher]: 'I need to get away the police are after me, those are the words you need to tell him, and if the police get me, boss, you know what is going to happen'. I mean how difficult is it to say that? That's exactly what you need to say.”
Siyoni told the court that he did not call Panayiotou on his own accord and police were “shouting” while giving him the instruction to make the calls.
“They (cops) were so cold-hearted that they made you call Chris an hour after he buried his wife, and Chris told you he had just buried his wife. Many times he did not answer,” Price put to Siyoni, who conceded.
Siyoni confirmed the conversation took place, while Price insisted that the bouncer was “not given a choice”, that he was told what to do and if he did not oblige, police “threatened” him with jail time.
Siyoni conceded that he was petrified of the thought of going to St Albans Prison. The Section 204 witness, who was also declared hostile, has since backtracked on his middleman status.
Earlier this week he claimed that he was threatened and tortured by police into making statements. On Thursday, Price made it clear that he would not attempt to discredit Siyoni with his questioning but rather asked the bouncer if he would help him prove that police had assaulted him.
The State alleges that Sinethemba Nemembe assisted Sizwe Vumazonke during April last year to kidnap and murder Panayiotou's wife Jayde at the behest of her husband.
Vumazonke, who was the alleged link between Siyoni and other hitmen, has since died.
Jayde was driven to a remote area on the outskirts of Kwanobuhle, where the alleged murder took place. The State contends Vumazonke fired two shots into Jayde's back and a final shot through her head.
Zolani Sibeko was the last suspect to be arrested, 15 months after the murder.
He was apparently placed “through cellphone mapping” outside Jayde's complex in the days before her murder.
The trial continues on Monday.
African News Agency