An Italian prosecutor on Monday sought to probe the link between alleged Mafioso Vito Palazzolo and Count Riccardo Agusta, who achieved notoriety in the Roodefontein saga.
The prosecutor, Gaetano Paci, was cross-examining former police officer Gert Nel in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court, which is hearing evidence for Palazzolo’s trial in absentia in Italy.
Nel told the court he was one of the police officers who arrested Palazzolo in the Eastern Cape in 1988, which resulted in Palazzolo returning to Switzerland to complete a jail term for playing banker in a massive drug deal.
Nel also said that since leaving the police in 1989 and becoming a security-services consultant, he had done work for Palazzolo through Palazzolo’s attorney Norman Snitcher.
He said his son, also Gert, was contracted to manage a number of Boland farms, including La Terra du Luc, a Franschhoek property once owned by Palazzolo but sold to Agusta in 1999.
Asked whether there was a relationship between Agusta and Palazzolo, Nel replied: “Yes.”
“What type of relationship?” asked Paci.
“He bought the farm from Palazzolo.”
Palazzolo’s advocate Jan Heunis objected to the questioning, saying it is not part of the case against Palazzolo that his alleged Mafia activity involved selling the farm to Agusta, and that Agusta is likewise not wanted in Italy for Mafia associations.
“It is clearly a fishing expedition that should be disallowed,” he told magistrate Derek Winter.
When Paci asked Nel to talk about the relationship between Agusta and his son, Heunis again protested.
Nel said his son began working for Agusta in April last year, but had never actually met the count.
Last year, a civil engineer told the George Regional Court, hearing corruption charges against former Western Cape politicians Peter Marais and David Malatsi, that Palazzolo played a key role in Agusta’s controversial Roodefontein golf-estate development.
The engineer, Ray Durden, testified that Palazzolo asked him to bring together a professional team to drive the project, and gave him instructions on an earlier, abandoned plan for a retirement complex on the farm.
Palazzolo had said he was acting as an adviser for Agusta.
Agusta last year paid a R1-million fine for his part in the Roodefontein corruption saga.
The hearings continue on Tuesday when Winter gives a ruling on the fitness of stressed former police officer Abraham Smith to resume his testimony.
A clinical psychologist told the court on Monday that Smith, who broke down in the stand last week, has post-traumatic stress disorder, and that specific traumatic events triggered symptoms that included depression, emotionality and paranoia. — Sapa
Failed bid to charge Palazzolo
Stressed policeman unfit to testify