Cape Town -
Eight years ago, one of Cape Town’s prominent underworld kingpins and his daughter were gunned down in a hail of bullets in Milnerton, a case that remains one of the most high-profile unsolved murders.
Thursday marks eight years since Yuri “The Russian” Ulianitski and his daughter Yulia, 4, were murdered as he was driving his family from a restaurant where he had celebrated his birthday.
Ulianitski was shot 20 times, while Yulia was shot once the head.
No arrests have been made for the murders.
This week Ulianitski’s widow Irina, who was wounded in the leg, her side and stomach during the shooting, told Weekend Argus, she had “no idea” what the status of the investigation into the murders was.
“I’ve got no news,” Irina said. She declined to comment further.
Hawks spokesman Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi confirmed the case was still being investigated and information regarding it was sub judice.
Police could not comment further on the developments in the case.
Ulianitski moved to South Africa in the early 1990s and once owned the Castle Strip club in the city centre.
A month before his murder he was arrested for allegedly conspiring to kidnap someone and for other charges, including illegally having a firearm.
Ulianitski had been close friends with Igor Russol, who had claimed to be the head of the Russian underworld in Cape Town, and who was arrested for extortion three years ago.
Ulianitski was also linked to a number of other high-profile businessmen in Cape Town, including former bouncer boss Cyril Beeka, who was murdered in a similar fashion to Ulianitski.
Beeka was murdered in Bellville South on March 21, 2011, as he was being driven in Bellville South.
No arrests were made in that case either.
Beeka’s driver at the time of the shooting was Serbian fugitive Dobrosav Gavric, who was wounded in the incident and who is now being detained pending various court cases.
Three years ago, in a case focusing on Gavric in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court, investigating officer Paul Hendrikse testified that alleged Sexy Boys gang leader Jerome Booysen was a suspect in Beeka’s murder.
Booysen did business with controversial Sea Point businessman Mark Lifman, who at one stage had also been Ulianitski’s business partner.
Lifman is on trial in the Cape Town Regional Court for allegedly running a bouncer company illegally, a case which resumes next month.
Sunday Argus