Cape Town - One of the men charged with the murder of 21-year-old Olwyn Cowley in the so-called “Gumtree murder” is back behind bars after his parole was revoked from a previous case.
On Thursday, three of the men charged with killing Cowley stood in the dock at the Mitchells Plain Magistrate’s Court. The fourth, 52-year-old Soegbodien Abvajee, once one of the Cape’s most wanted men, was back in Pollsmoor Prison.
The prosecution said Abvajee was a sentenced prisoner. This had not been so when he was arrested and charged with Cowley’s murder earlier this month.
The Cape Argus has established that Abvajee, who has a string of previous convictions, is serving the remainder of an earlier sentence.
Correctional Services spokesman Simphiwe Xako confirmed Abvajee will serve the next seven years behind bars after his parole was revoked last Wednesday.
Abvajee was sentenced in 2004 to 15 years in jail for armed robbery. He and two men had robbed a liquor store in Ottery of more than R21 000 in 2001.
Abvajee, of Athlone, served eight years and was paroled from the Drakenstein Medium A Correctional Centre in April for good behaviour. He had also completed rehabilitation courses and skills training.
But because he was out on parole at the time that he and Jason Elias, 30, Shawaal Staggie, 26, and Rameez Felix, 29, were arrested in connection with Cowley’s murder, his parole was cancelled.
It is alleged the men planned Cowley’s murder and lured him to his death after responding to an advert on Gumtree, a classifieds website.
Cowley went missing on August 30 after he left home to meet men who wanted to buy his BMW 325ti. His body was found with two gunshot wounds to the head at Monwabisi beach in Khayelitsha the next day.
His car was later found abandoned in Mitchells Plain.
Asked by magistrate Walter Golding why Abvajee was not in court, prosecutor Gift Hina said Abvajee was a sentenced prisoner and was not brought to court.
“Why not?” Golding asked. Hina did not answer.
Abvajee’s lawyer, Bertha Cottle, said she could not address the court as to where Abvajee was.
“I have no information as to where he is,” she said.
Hina then told the court that a date for a formal bail application had been set for November 9.
The men have been charged with a Schedule 6 offence – the category in which the most serious crimes fall. This also means the men have to show that exceptional circumstances existed to justify their release on bail.
If convicted, the men face a minimum sentence of life in prison. A court can deviate from the prescribed minimum sentence only if the men show that substantial and compelling reasons warrant a deviation.
According to Correctional Services, Abvajee was first sentenced, after being convicted of theft in 2000, to four years in jail, two of which were suspended for five years.
Nine months later he was paroled, but absconded.
In June 2001, three months after being paroled, wearing a police uniform, he and two men robbed the Ottery liquor store. They were arrested later.
In February 2003, the police listed Abvajee as one of city’s most wanted criminals and two months later he was apprehended and sent to prison to serve the remainder of his term.
A year later he was convicted of aggravated robbery and sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment, as well as three years for possessing a firearm and ammunition.
Cape Argus