Thulsie twins’ arrest was lawful, court rules

Twin brothers, Brandon-Lee and Tony-Lee Thulsie are facing three counts of terror related charges. The twins attempted to join ISIS in 2015 and also planned to bomb a Mission of the United States of America and Jewish Institutions in South Africa. Picture: Facebook

Twin brothers, Brandon-Lee and Tony-Lee Thulsie are facing three counts of terror related charges. The twins attempted to join ISIS in 2015 and also planned to bomb a Mission of the United States of America and Jewish Institutions in South Africa. Picture: Facebook

Published Aug 15, 2016

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Johannesburg - The lawyer of the terror-accused Thulsie twins is not taking Monday's loss lying down and is going all the way to the high court for her clients.

As soon as magistrate Pieter du Plessis pronounced that the arrest of the twins had in fact been executed lawfully, Annelene van den Heever immediately stood up and said they were to approach the high court.

Van den Heever believes that her clients were arrested unlawfully and wants the high court to rule on that despite Du Plessis's ruling.

However, Du Plessis said Van den Heever could approach the high court only after the twins' bail application had been heard.

That resulted in both parties warring a little over the next step that should be taken.

At the end, the magistrate set the twins' bail application for Friday. The defence on the other hand will approach the high court within 48 hours.

The ruling seems to have shattered the twins’ mother who cried bitterly after hearing that her sons' arrests were indeed lawful.

The twins had brought the application saying their arrest had been unlawful.

National Prosecuting Authority's Phindi Louw said they were happy about that as they have always maintained that the twins had been lawfully detained.

She said the magistrate was convinced after seeing the evidence of what was found during execution of warrant of arrests and also the statement of one of the State witnesses.

“We will oppose the State's application at the high court,” she said.

The Star

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