Johannesburg - The prosecution in the Radovan Krejcir murder trial has accused the defence of abusing court processes to fish for evidence to which it's not entitled.
On Tuesday, the two defence teams representing Krejcir and his four co-accused completed their application at the high court in Joburg seeking further disclosure of the State’s docket.
Cliff Alexander, representing Krejcir, and SW van der Merwe, representing the other four accused, accused the State of a “trial by ambush” for failing to disclose key parts of the docket, including forensic evidence, cellphone data and the court's record of the bail proceedings.
But on Wednesday, prosecutor Lawrence Gcaba hit back at his two opponents by suggesting they were abusing section 87 of the Criminal Procedure Act, (CPA), using it to ask the court to order a handover of evidence that, if disclosed, could jeopardise the State’s case.
Krejcir, Siboniso Miya, Nkanyiso Mafunda, Siphiwe Memela and Borislavov Grigorov are charged with the murder in 2013 of alleged Bedfordview drug dealer Sam Issa, in which he was shot dead in his Audi Q7.
According to the defence, the State had failed to provide details of exactly when and where the five accused had allegedly planned Issa’s murder, robbed him and then days later killed him in a drive-by shooting.
Because of this, the defence lawyers both claimed they were unable to formulate alibi defences for their clients, and had been prejudiced in planning their cases.
However, Gcaba said such incredibly specific information was still unknown to the State, and the defence had been informed on numerous occasions that this was the case.
He argued that the requests for the other evidence was hugely problematic, as according, to the CPA, prior to trial, the State had to provide only the particulars that would clarify the charges faced by the accused, not the key evidence of the State’s case.
Citing a series of case-law examples, Gcaba argued the defence was not entitled to much of the evidence they were requesting, and that its disclosure would not be in the interests of justice. He insisted that disclosure could be damaging to the interests of the witnesses.
Gcaba seemed particularly offended at the defence’s request for the record of Krejcir and Grigorov’s bail proceedings from last year, as he claimed the State had provided copies to Krejcir’s previous defence lawyers.
Judge Mihloti Msimeki is expected to provide his verdict on the disclosure application next week, as well as give judgment on a previous application to remove the heavy restraints on Krejcir and his co-accused.
The Star