George Louca has exhausted all but one legal avenue to halt his extradition back to SA to stand trial for the murder of Lolly Jackson.
On Wednesday morning, in a judgment at the Cypriot Supreme Court, Louca – who fled SA to hide out in Cyprus after Jackson’s murder – was denied his extradition appeal.
Had he succeeded, he would have been released from prison and the extradition order repealed.
Last month Louca was ordered back to SA to face criminal charges. At that stage Louca, through his lawyer, Sofronios Sofroniou, immediately brought a habeas corpus application in the Supreme Court in Cyprus.
A habeas corpus is an application for a prisoner to be released from unlawful detention. Sofroniou argued that Louca’s detention was unlawful because some of the charges dated back six years, and the chance of a fair trial was unlikely. It was also argued that if Louca was brought back to SA, his life would be in danger in the local underworld.
The application was denied and Louca will remain in custody.
Prosecutor Olga Sophocleous said Louca’s last chance to avoid extradition would be to appeal against the habeas corpus decision.
This entails a review of the application by three other Supreme Court judges. If this last bid fails, he will be returned to SA.
Louca was arrested in Cyprus in March, almost two years after Jackson was shot dead at a house in Kempton Park on May 3, 2010.
Louca fled to Cyprus shortly after Jackson’s murder, and returned to his hometown of Limassol – a small but bustling city in the Greek half of Cyprus.
Louca has made two bids for freedom in a Limassol court but has failed both times. He has been held at Nicosia Central Prison for several months.
SA police and the National Prosecuting Authority have spent months trying to extradite him to face trial in Joburg.
The Limassol High Court ruled that the evidence against Louca was strong enough to warrant his extradition.
Judge Elena Ephraim noted that one witness mentioned in the NPA’s report claimed Louca had admitted to Jackson’s murder, while another described Louca as having kept large amounts of stolen goods, while a third accused Louca of having bribed former crime intelligence boss Joey Mabasa by giving his wife a car.
As Cyprus does not have an extradition treaty with SA, the NPA had to go through the EU to start the process to have Louca returned to SA.
At Louca’s bail applications, Ephraim ruled that the accusations against Louca were serious and he would have to stay in custody until his extradition hearing was finalised.
Louca, who told The Star in March that he was “no killer”, also said he was wary of being brought back to SA and feared for his safety and that of his family.
“Even if they extradite me I will never open my mouth,” he promised.
Louca claimed “important people” would be brought down if he gave the full story of Jackson’s murder. In an interview last year, Louca told a Sunday Times journalist he was willing to negotiate with local police regarding the murder, but was worried that if he was brought back to SA, he would not receive a fair trial.
Several other men linked to SA’s underworld have been killed since Jackson’s murder.
The Star