Port Elizabeth – The man who allegedly sourced a hitman to kidnap and kill schoolteacher Jayde Panayiotou, received deaths threats while in police custody, the Port Elizabeth High Court heard on Friday.
Investigating officer in the case, Captain Kanna Swanepoel, was under cross-examination in the trial against Christopher Panayiotou, Sinethemba Nenembe and Zolani Sibeko, who are charged with conspiring to kidnap and kill Panayiotou's schoolteacher wife during April 2015.
During a trial-within-a-trial, which aims to deal with admissibility of a video recording in which Panayiotou allegedly implicated himself, Swanepoel told the court that Panayiotou's bouncer, Luthando Siyoni, had informed him that his life was being threatened.
"Siyoni got information from his family that people were visiting his home asking about his whereabouts," said Swanepoel.
Swanepoel initially told the court that these were "just people" who had visited Siyoni's house.
"Siyoni spoke about a hitman but there was no concrete evidence." Swanepoel said he never approached the Panayiotou family about the alleged threats on the bouncer's life.
Defence advocate Terry Price referred to Swanepoel's statement: "On numerous occasions people related to Panayiotou and Sizwe went to his house to find out whereabouts."
Swanepoel then told the court that the people who visited Siyoni may have worked for the Panayiotou family. Price also said that Swanepoel did not warn Siyoni of his rights.
Swanepoel said: "I recorded this four times already, so I didn't think it was necessary." Price told Swanepoel that Panayiotou was also not warned of his rights.
Swanepoel responded: "Christopher did not want to sign in the book, what must I do? Break off his hand and make him sign?"
According to Price, police did not charge Siyoni because they did not have anything on Panayiotou. But according to Swanepoel the calls between Siyoni and the businessman prior to the sting operation, was "Siyoni's idea".
"He didn't want to take the fall for someone else's doing," he said.
The atmosphere in court became heated when Swanepoel insinuated that Price had paid for Siyoni's girlfriend Babalwa Breakfast to have eye tests and contact lenses.
According to the defence, Breakfast is "legally blind". Price has on numerous occasions criticised the State for not taking this into consideration when she made statements to police.
Breakfast and Siyoni have both backtracked on statements earlier made to the police and were subsequently declared hostile witnesses during the trial.
"Did I do anything wrong? I will argue this at a later stage," said Price.