Johannesburg - Clad in white Muslim headscarves, a backpack and winter jackets, the Thulsie twins walked into the Johannesburg Magistrate's Court yesterday looking calm and relaxed.
The brothers, Tony-Lee and Brandon-Lee Thulsie, whispered quietly to each other as court began, while their mother Wasiela broke into silent sobs, clutching a scarf tied around her neck.
According to their defence attorney, advocate Annelene van den Heever, this was their 23rd court appearance since their arrest in July last year on terrorism charges.
Discussions in court focused on centralising the Thulsie case as there are charges from various parts of South Africa, including the most recent charge of fraud for fake passports from Ficksburg in the Free State.
State prosecutor advocate Adele Barnard told the court the case could not be moved to the high court in Joburg until it was centralised and that they were waiting for the defence to give consent on the matter.
In response, Van den Heever said they were still waiting for digital copies of the evidence before being able to make an “informed decision” and give consent.
“We were informed by the State that the investigations were completed. They have had more than enough time to provide us with the digital copies of the evidence. In this regard, the State could have endeavoured to make the copies available by Thursday or Friday (this week),” she said.
Van den Heever added that the State were initially not prepared to hand over the digital evidence as they feared manipulation of it. “However, we made it clear that we can’t manipulate the evidence because the State has control over the original copy.”
The State asked for a two-week postponement, but the defence argued that this was too long as they wanted to move the case to the high court faster.
After back and forth arguments, the case was postponed to May 29.
As the twins were taken back into custody, they waved and smiled at their family.
During their appearance last month, the indictment document revealed that the twins allegedly planned to use firearms explosives and possibly poisons to attack the High Commission of the UK in Pretoria the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Pretoria the US Embassy in Pretoria, the SA Zionist Federation and cartoonist Jonathan "Zapiro" Shapiro.