Alleged Israeli Mafia member Lior Saad appeared briefly in the Johannesburg High Court on Friday for the murder of diamond merchant Shai Abissar in 1999.
The court postponed the case against 30-year-old Saad to August 18.
Saad has since his arrest and first court appearance in April 2001 contested in a separate matter in court the legality of his apprehension. He was nabbed at the Mozambique/South African border.
The challenge by Saad regarding his arrest has yet to be finalised.
Abissar, who was the husband of Gauteng socialite Hazel Crane, disappeared on October 17, 1999. His decomposing body was later found in a grave on a smallholding near Pretoria.
Evidence in court is that Abissar was beaten to death.
In June 2001, one prisoner was shot dead and Saad was injured in a drive-by shooting while he was being transported to the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court from Brixton Cell.
It was rumoured that a contract had been taken out on Saad.
He remains in custody at the Johannesburg prison. ‒ Sapa