Johannesburg - One of Czech fugitive Radovan Krejcir’s co-accused has claimed his human rights are being violated after the high court in Joburg forced him to choose to represent himself or apply for a legal aid lawyer.
Krejcir, Siboniso Miya, Nkanyiso Mafunda, Siphiwe Memela and Borislavov Grigorov are charged with the 2013 murder of Sam Issa, an alleged Bedfordview drug kingpin, who was shot in his car in that suburb.
The start of trial in the high court in Joburg has been delayed by issues surrounding legal representation, with Krejcir yesterday opting to represent himself after being unable to find a lawyer willing to argue for him.
However, lawyers for Ma-funda and Memela, the legal team Annelene van den Heever and Sinen Mnguni, yesterday surprised the court by announcing they had not been paid and thus could not represent the pair.
Mnguni told the court that Mafunda needed a month to put the funds together, prompting presiding Judge Mihloti Msimeki to insist that the pair either apply for legal aid or represent themselves.
When Mafunda heard this, he claimed he had the money to pay his fees, and simply needed to contact his family to transfer it into the lawyers’ accounts.
However, he later admitted that he would need at least two weeks to sell various items to gather the amount.
When Judge Msimeki insisted that that was not a believable story, Mafunda said he had not had ample time to respond to the court’s questions, and that his rights were not being respected if he was forced to apply for legal aid.
The judge said that considering the trial had been dragging on for months, he could not grant a further two-week postponement.
After this denial, Memela and Mafunda applied for legal aid lawyers. The trial is set to start on Wednesday.
The Star