A former elite police officer broke down on Monday in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court, where he had been summoned to answer questions about alleged Mafia kingpin Roberto Palazzolo.
Abraham Smith was called on the first day of a hearing in which questions drawn up by Italian prosecutors — who are trying Palazzolo in Italy in absentia — are being put to a series of witnesses.
Smith was a member of the now-disbanded presidential task unit, which was investigating Mafia links in South Africa, where Palazzolo lives.
As he went into the witness box, he told the court he had been boarded from the police with post-traumatic stress disorder, resulting from ”severe pressures of my work environment”.
He said that in Italy a witness of his calibre would receive protection, especially when testifying in open court.
”Emotionally and psychologically, I am not prepared to be examined by this commission,” he told magistrate Derek Winter.
He said after he left the police his home was bombed, and his two Alsatian dogs were poisoned by members of a South African National Defence Force reconnaissance unit from Langebaan, who had been monitoring him.
”I must admit to this court…” he said, then stopped, swallowing several times, and bowing his head with fingers pressed to his eyes.
However, Winter told Smith’s lawyer, Andre Roux: ”Your client appears to be compellable and well as competent. Arguably.”
He said Smith could use the lunch break to consult Roux. — Sapa