Hitman may be after murder accused, court told

File photo

File photo

Published Nov 24, 2016

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Kimberley - The three men charged with the murder of 29-year-old Ashwin Malan at his mother’s guest house in Kimberley are being sought by the hitman, who wants to shoot them, and their lives are in danger.

This emerged on Wednesday during the bail application of Marlin Koopman, Rahjendra Beukes and Levert van Wyk, who have been charged with premeditated murder and robbery with aggravating circumstances following the incident that occurred in September, when Malan was shot dead at the Atlantis Guest House.

The bail application has been postponed to Thursday.

Two men, believed to be from Gauteng, are still being sought in connection with the shooting.

The investigating officer in the case, Warrant Officer Patrick Dibebe, said Wednesday that one of the reasons that the police were opposing bail was that he had information that the three accused were being sought by the hitman.

“Their lives are in danger and if they are granted bail they might be hurt by the hitman,” said Dibebe.

When questioned by Leanne Sullpahen, the defence attorney for accused number three (Van Wyk), as to why he did not mention this two weeks ago when the bail application first stated, Dibebe said he couldn’t remember exactly when he had received this information, but added that he had just heard that the hitman wanted to shoot the three.

He said, however, that he did not have a statement to this effect.

“You are sitting with information that is so important, yet you haven’t opened a docket against the hitman. One would have expected that you would have investigated this because it is a threat on the lives of these three men. It is my submission that you are making up this information as you go along,” the defence attorney said.

Dibebe added that the murder was pre-planned and said that he had three statements from different witnesses implicating all three accused.

Ettienne Matthewson, who is appearing for the other two accused, questioned why the identikits published by the police did not look like his clients.

When questioned about the police statements implicating the accused, Dibebe was reluctant to reveal the identity of the police’s witnesses and said repeatedly that the truth would come out in the trial.

“All I know is that there was planning involved - this was premeditated. The accused have also not denied that they were at the scene and that they had a common purpose to be there.”

Questioned about who had given the information regarding the planning, Dibebe again said he could not disclose this information.

Matthewson pointed out that the victim lived in Petrusburg and was only in Kimberley on the night of the incident because he was attending a conference. “What is the motive for the murder?” he asked Dibebe, who replied that it was robbery.

“If the deceased disturbed them by coming out of his room and confronting the robbers, it could not have been planned. My clients say that they don’t even know this man.”

Dibebe pointed out that after the incident, one of the accused was in the company of a friend where he stated that they had made a mistake and caused problems by killing a man at a guest house because he owed them money for a laptop. He, however, would not reveal the name of the person.

“I am putting it to you that you don’t have a statement that indicates that the murder was planned,” said Matthewson.

Dibebe, however, was adamant that he had a three-page statement from a witness and that the truth would come out in the trial.

Dibebe stated that he also had three disks containing the cellphone records of the accused, but added that he was struggling to print the 7 700 pages.

He added that at this stage he could not state whether the woman who worked at the guest house had received calls from any of the suspects.

Asked by Sullaphen to read out part of the statement taken from the witness implicating her client, Dibebe said that as soon as he read anything out, it would become immediately obvious who had made the statement.

“If it was a planned murder, the accused would know immediately who made the statement anyway,” Sullaphen submitted.

She also questioned how many witnesses the police had, to which Dibebe replied two. Dibebe then added that he also had a statement from a witness regarding certain admissions made by one of the accused before the crime was committed.

“This is a very serious crime where a gun was used. People are scared to come forward and it is the duty of the police to search for witnesses,” Dibebe said.

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