Johannesburg - A former Money Point employee who was accused of plotting to kill Czech businessman Radovan Krejcir has had the charges against him reinstated months after they were dropped.
Brendan Harrison was arrested last year for allegedly conspiring to kill the Czech businessman, even though his defence says he was not in the country when the alleged plot was hatched.
But the case was thrown out of court in November, setting the man free. Earlier this month, however, he appeared at the Germiston Magistrate’s court on the same charges, and the National Prosecuting Authority is yet to explain why it’s still pursuing a case against Harrison.
While The Star understands the prosecution is trying to argue it has new facts to add to the case docket, the NPA responded to written queries that “at this point”, there is none.
According to the authority’s spokesman, Nathi Mncube, the defence made unsuccessful representations to the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions requesting for the charges to be withdrawn. “Which means the office of the DPP instructed the office of Germiston to continue with the case,” said Mncube.
When the charges were dropped against Harrison last year, he said he wanted to assist in the Hawks’ investigation into Krejcir, and that he was planning to lay criminal charges against the Czech businessman for putting him through six months of “prison hell”.
Harrison claimed during his bail application in August that Krejcir had used Bedfordview police officers to kidnap him so that the Czech could interrogate him at gunpoint. Harrison said he had been working with law enforcement agencies since his detention.
The investigating officer in the case, David Mothibi, detailed in an affidavit to the Germiston Magistrate’s Court the alleged plot to kill Krejcir. According to the affidavit, Harrison and his Money Point colleague, Michael Arsiotis, had allegedly roped in a man named “Tony” to help them in their assassination plan.
But Tony informed Krejcir’s business manager, Ivan Savov – currently in custody after being arrested for money laundering and fraud – of the plan.
Krejcir was also recently arrested on an attempted murder charge for allegedly kidnapping the brother of a man who had been meant to smuggle a large shipment of crystal meth out of the country.
The Star