Johannesburg - Last month when Radovan Krejcir last appeared at the high court in Johannesburg for sentencing, he was surrounded by security personnel and had chains that shackled his hands and legs.
On Wednesday, when he appeared at the high court sitting at Palm Ridge, the chains were gone.
Krejcir, sentenced to 35 years in prison for kidnapping and murder last month, on Wednesday appeared alongside four co-accused for the murder of alleged Bedfordview drug kingpin, Sam Issa.
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Security surrounding the Czech fugitive was ratcheted up last year after a series of alleged escape plots foiled by police and Correctional Services investigators.
While the usual bevy of heavily armed tactical response team members surrounded the Palm Ridge courtroom and the building itself, Krejcir was allowed freedom of movement in the dock.
His legal team had previously complained they had not been able to consult with their client for months while he was detained at a maximum security Kokstad Prison in KwaZulu-Natal.
This had been resolved after he was brought up to a Pretoria prison while he attended court trials for his multiple cases over the past month.
Read: Bomb threat and rattling chains at Krejcir trial
On Wednesday Krejcir’s lawyer, SW van der Merwe asked for disclosure of the State’s docket to allow his team to prepare for the trial.
The case was postponed to April 18.
Krejcir and four others - Siboniso Miya, Nkanyiso Mafunda, Simphiwe Memela and Lyubomir Borislav Grigorov - are facing nine counts, including murder, for allegedly plotting and conducting Issa’s murder.
The alleged underworld figure was gunned down in his Audi Q7 in 2013.
The State believes it was an argument over debt gone wrong.
The State alleges Krejcir owed Issa R500 000 and had him killed - by hiring Miya and his cohorts - rather than repay him.
The Star