CAPE TOWN - Alleged underworld figure and accused murderer Nafiz Modack’s “violent personality” is one of the reasons the State wants him to remain behind bars.
Modack is implicated in a raft of criminal charges including the murder of Anti-Gang Unit officer Charl Kinnear, the attempted murder of criminal lawyer William Booth, intimidation, kidnapping, extortion, money laundering and contravening the Electronics Act.
He and his co-accused – Jacques Cronje and Ashley Tabisher – will find out later this month if their lengthy bail applications in the Blue Downs Regional Court have succeeded.
In their closing arguments, opposing bail of all three accused, the State averred that Modack had been aware of a hand-grenade attack during 2019 at the home of Kinnear and had been requested, by another of his co-accused Amaal Jantjies, for help in acquiring a hand grenade.
The State submitted that if Modack were to be released on bail he would “endanger the safety of the public or any particular person or will commit a Schedule 1 offence”, adding that the charges he faces are inherently violent crimes and that he has a “very violent personality” and “show to what length he would go to threaten any person who opposes him and/or his illegal activities”.
The matter will return to court for judgment on January 19.
“It is the (State’s) submission that the WhatsApp communication between Modack and Jantjies definitively reveals that Modack was the mastermind behind the planned attack on Kinnear, his colleagues and family; and that Modack had instructed Jantjies to corrupt Tabisher.
“Modack funded the corrupt activities and the planned attack on Kinnear`s home. The State submits that the evidence reveals that Tabisher was corrupted and agreed to give information relating to planned Anti-Gang Unit activities to Jantjies in order that she supply it to Modack. It is evident that Tabisher received a cellphone that was funded by Modack in order to assist with their corrupt activities,” court documents read.
According to the State, a similar modus operandi as in Kinnear’s murder was evident in the attempted murder of Booth.
“According to the Section 204 witness and the plea and sentence agreements of Ebrahim Deare and Riyaad Gesant, they got an instruction from a Terrible West Sider gang leader to do the hit on Booth on 6 April 2020.
The 204 witness took them ... to a place near Booth’s residential address where he dropped them off so that they could do location scouting in order obtain more information to successfully execute the hit.
“According to the section 204 witness, the Terrible West Sider gang leader contacted Gesant during the evening of April 8, 2020 and was impatient with them because they were taking too long to do the hit. It is the State’s submission that the only reason he continued to ping Booth was because the hit was not successful and Modack was not done with him yet,” closing arguments read.
Cape Times