Johannesburg - Radovan Krejcir has given testimony on what he claims happened the night alleged drug dealer Sam Issa was murdered, with the Czech fugitive using his mistress as his alibi.
And as the State’s cross-examination got into full swing, it was revealed that Krejcir allegedly had help from a former president of Seychelles to secure a new identity and flee that country.
Krejcir and four co-accused, Siboniso Miya, Nkanyiso Mafunda, Simphiwe Memela and Lyubomir Borislav Grigorov, are facing nine counts, including murder, for the 2013 drive-by shooting in Bedfordview that claimed Issa’s life.
On Wednesday, Krejcir and Grigorov’s bail application continued in the Germiston Magistrate’s Court, where Krejcir took the stand.
The State alleges that Krejcir conspired with his son Denis - who has yet to be arrested because he has been denied entry to South Africa after a holiday in December - and the rest of the group to murder Issa.
An affidavit by Batho Mogola, one of the police team investigating Krejcir, revealed that Issa was allegedly killed because Krejcir had borrowed R500 000 and didn’t want to repay him.
According to the affidavit, Krejcir also believed that Issa was responsible for an attempt on his life outside his business in Bedfordview in 2013, where a pair of automatic weapons, concealed behind the licence plates of a parked car, were used to open fire at him.
Krejcir has denied all the charges, but particularly the version of events by investigators, claiming that on the morning of the shooting he was at his girlfriend’s Linksfield home rather than at the Bedfordview home he shared with his wife and children.
He admitted knowing Issa, but denied ever having borrowed any money from him, instead saying the R500 000 he needed for bail in another fraud case was given to him by his mother in the Czech Republic.
Proceedings also revealed the State was now in possession of Krejcir’s two passports, despite claiming in the bail application that Krejcir’s holding on to these documents made him a potential flight risk.
Prosecutor Lawrence Gcaba argued that Krejcir would flee the country if granted bail, asking him how he first fled the Czech Republic to Seychelles, and then later to South Africa.
Krejcir said he fled the Czech Republic because his father had been killed by the government, and not because there were at least five criminal cases against him, as Gcaba had alleged.
He also had to flee from persecution in Seychelles, he said. It was in this explanation that he revealed that his official Seychelles passport, which used the fake name Egbert Savvy, had been acquired with the help of Seychelles’ former president.
Gcaba tried to get further details from Krejcir on this point, but was unsuccessful, as it forms part of an application with South Africa’s Refugee Appeal Board, which legally has to remain confidential.
The case was postponed to July 28, when the bail application will continue.
Even if Krejcir is granted bail in this matter, he will not simply be allowed to walk out of the court.
He would remain in custody on several other cases, including an attempted murder and kidnapping case in the final stages of proceedings and a conspiracy to commit murder case set down for trial in October.
The Star