The marathon trial of suspended police director Andre Lincoln (41) on theft and fraud charges allegedly involving R300 000, is drawing to a close.
The hearing began in May 2000, in the Wynberg Regional Court before magistrate Awie Kotze, who on Friday postponed it to October 28 for closing argument from prosecutor Andre Bouwer and defence counsel David Jacobs.
Closing argument is expected to last three days and finish on October 30. Thereafter, the hearing is to be postponed to November 18 for judgement, which in itself has been set down for two days.
Friday’s proceedings ended with the short testimony of Christian von Palace Kolbatschenko, son of Robert von Palace Kolbatschenko (better known as Vito Palazzolo).
The son, who, like his father, had been subpoenaed by the court to testify, confirmed to the court that he had not received any money in an envelope from Lincoln, intended for his father.
It is alleged that Lincoln fraudulently claimed expenses worth R8 500 for a trip with Palazzolo to Angola, which had been entirely at Palazzolo’s expense.
A report compiled by the Presidential Investigation Task Unit (Pitu), commanded at the time by Lincoln, linking Palazzolo to the Mafia, had been widely distributed, including to the Angolan authorities.
As an international mining consultant, Palazzolo had frequently visited Angola, and Palazzolo feared the report, allegedly with false allegations about himself, would ruin his consultancy.
As far as Palazzolo was concerned, the purpose of his trip with Lincoln to Angola had been for Lincoln – as a senior South African police officer – to clear Palazzolo’s name with the Angolan authorities.
For this reason, Palazzolo had not expected any refund from Lincoln personally, or from the police.
However, when Lincoln got caught out with the alleged false expense claim, he allegedly requested Palazzolo to lie to the police that Lincoln had in fact repaid his part of the cost, via an envelope containing R8 500 handed to Palazzolo’s son.
In court, Palazzolo said his conscience prevented him telling lies, but that if he had lied about the envelope he would not have been so harassed by the police, nor would he have landed in court testifying against his will in the Lincoln case. – Sapa