Johannesburg - Forensic consultant Paul O’Sullivan has fingered a group of top police officials allegedly involved in corrupt activities with Czech fugitive Radovan Krejcir.
However, the legality of the release of a series of court documents - some taken directly out of Krejcir’s case dockets - may have serious implications on the outcome of the Czech’s current criminal trial.
A media statement by O’Sullivan and AfriForum claims the documents prove corrupt dealings between former head of detectives, Lieutenant-General Vinesh Moonoo, Major-General Joey Mabasa, magistrate Stephen Holzen and embattled crime intelligence head Lieutenant-General Richard Mdluli.
“None of Krejcir’s crimes would have been possible without the assistance and protection of senior officials within the criminal justice system, who, instead of locking him up, colluded with him to commit fraud, corruption, racketeering, robbery and murder, and to defeat the ends of justice,” O’Sullivan said in the statement.
“I have opened multiple dockets that contain volumes of prima facie evidence against these senior officials, and yet none of them have to date been brought to book.”
One of the documents, a letter from Krejcir’s attorney, Eric Bryer, to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), Andrew Chauke, shows Krejcir apparently willing to testify against them. The letter was part of a plea deal Krejcir was negotiating with police and the National Prosecuting Authority to have him serve his criminal sentence in the Czech Republic.
However, Krejcir, during an appearance at the high court in Joburg, denied knowledge of the letter or having given Bryer instructions to send it, saying the first time he had seen it was on Saturday, despite its being sent to the NPA early this month.
The documents caused a furore at the high court proceedings where Krejcir and four co-accused, Siboniso Miya, Nkanyiso Mafunda, Siphiwe Memela and Borislavov Grigorov, are charged with the 2013 murder of Sam Issa, an alleged Bedfordview drug kingpin.
Miya’s lawyer Annelene van den Heever said the documents released could only have been taken from the State, particularly an affidavit from a witness set to testify in the Issa murder trial.
However, prosecutor Lawrence Gcaba denied this emphatically, as the letter between Bryer and the DPP was most certainly not only in the hands of the State.
The case was stood down until October 31 to allow the defence lawyers the opportunity to go through the documents, with the suggestion that their supposedly illegal release could prevent the trial from going ahead.
The Star