Durban - There is no direct evidence implicating Mohamed Vahed Ebrahim in the kidnapping of Miguel Louw and the State has failed to prove the case against him beyond a reasonable doubt. This was the contention of defence advocate Jay Naidoo, who began his closing argument in the Durban High Court on Friday.
Naidoo focused on the timeline of events concerning the dates on which the 9-year-old Sydenham boy went missing (July 17, 2018), when Ebrahim was arrested (July 20) and when the body was found (September 9). He also asked who had placed Miguel’s body in bush in Longbury, Phoenix, near Ebrahim’s home, as he had been in custody at the time this was done.
He said the objective evidence of forensic entomologist Melanie Piernaar, who investigated the location where Miguel’s body was found, was that it had only been placed in that location around August 27 to 30, 2018.
Piernaar’s investigation had estimated the time of death to be between July 25 and 27, 2018, when Ebrahim was in custody.
Challenging the allegation that Ebrahim kidnapped and murdered Miguel, Naidoo argued that inferences drawn in respect of circumstantial evidence must be consistent with the facts, and must be the only reasonable inference to be drawn to the exclusion of all others.
He said Pienaar’s evidence that the body had not been exposed to the elements for some time meant it had not been at the location it was found, and suggested that someone else had placed it there - not Ebrahim.
“The questions that beg the asking are: Where was the body from July 25 to August 27, 2018? And while Ebrahim was in custody, who disposed of the body?” he said.
Naidoo said it was significant that the discovery of the body coincided with the timing of Ebrahim’s bail application and a “bizarre visit by Miguel’s mother, Raylene Louw, to him at Westville prison, with an offer to pay his bail”.
Naidoo said Louw was not a reliable witness.
“She was evasive and had a habit of claiming a loss of memory on each occasion she was faced with a difficult question under cross-examination.
“Within hours of the deceased’s disappearance, she pinned Ebrahim as the person responsible for Miguel’s disappearance. She single-handedly mounted a social media campaign implicating him. She directed the police investigation to him,” said Naidoo.
However, State senior advocate Kelvin Singh had said in his closing arguments that Ebrahim had planned to kidnap Miguel after Louw, whom he had fallen in love with, had rejected him and told him to stay away from her children.
Singh alleged that Ebrahim lured Miguel from his school and bought him a KFC meal and thereafter took him against his will to Phoenix, where he was killed and his body disposed of in bush close to his home.
It is not in dispute that Ebrahim was with Miguel at the KFC outlet on Stanley Copley Drive in Sydenham the day the boy went missing.
Ebrahim claims to have bought Miguel a meal before leaving the boy and boarding a taxi to Phoenix.
Miguel’s body was found, still in his school uniform, on September 3, 2018 in bush on Longbury Drive, about 500m away from Ebrahim’s home.
When arrested, Louw’s identity document and the birth certificates of her children, Miguel and his sister Mikayla, were found in Ebrahim’s possession.
Naidoo said the camera footage relied on by the State did not clearly identify the persons suggested by Louw and Mikayla as being Ebrahim and Miguel.
From the footage, there was no hint that Miguel had been accosted . The video footage was “woefully short” of evidence showing that Ebrahim and Miguel boarded a taxi, said Naidoo.
“All the video footage achieves is that Miguel was in the company of Ebrahim from 2.06pm to 2.16pm. The question remains: where was Miguel from 2.16pm onwards, and in whose custody was he? There is a 44-minute window from the last time he was seen and the time it was realised that he was missing,” said Naidoo.
“Ebrahim’s evidence in the bail application offered a version to the extent that he in fact met Miguel, bought him chicken and then left him in Sydenham while he boarded a taxi to Phoenix. I submit that in the absence of Miguel being placed in the company of Ebrahim at any time after 2.16pm at Sydenham, his version is reasonably possibly true and cannot justifiably be rejected,” said Naidoo.
He will continue with his closing argument on Thursday.