Two men convicted of killing crime intelligence officer Carrim Alli will know on Thursday if their bid to appeal their convictions and sentences will be overturned.
A full Bench of judges listened intently at the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria on Wednesday as the legal teams of suspended police sergeant Isa Mohammed and his former business partner Tienie de Bruin argued that their clients were not guilty of murder.
The men were convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment in 2007 for the murder of Alli in October 2004.
Alli died after he was shot and then set alight on a road near Wallmansthal. He died in hospital later after declaring that ”Isa Mohammed was the one who did this”.
However, Mohammed’s counsel Francois Roets argued Alli had been under the influence of pain medication and had not elaborated on what in fact Mohammed had done.
De Bruin’s legal team also argued their client was not at the scene and was only aware that something sinister might have happened after the murder had taken place.
In De Bruin’s statement during the trial, he said Mohammed and a friend had said: ”Carrim must go.” This was after they were angry that one of Mohammed’s friends had been arrested.
According to De Bruin, Mohammed thereafter arranged several meetings with Alli but postponed them each time. He later also asked De Bruin to try to get a silencer and ammunition for a firearm and, a few days before the murder, asked De Bruin to buy a five-litre can of petrol and a new cellphone.
De Bruin handed the phone to Mohammed on the day of Alli’s death and then went home.
He claimed Mohammed phoned him later that night and told him the ”meeting had been successful”.
He later also gave him a bag to keep, which he threw away after police arrested Mohammed.
Arguing against the appeal, advocate Kobus Jacobs argued there was sufficient evidence implicating the men in the crimes.
”In his [Alli’s] declaration he said ‘Isa Mohammed did this to me’.”
However, he said the judges did not seem to be happy that this meant Mohammed had tried to kill him.
”They are not sure beyond a reasonable doubt.”
Outside the court Alli’s brother Ishmael said it ”just didn’t make sense” that the judges could have any doubt.
”The previous judge accepted the hearsay evidence and the judge convicted on hearsay evidence,” he said incredulously.
In 2007 the two men were further sentenced to eight years’ imprisonment on charges of malicious damage to property and unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition.
They were later released on R10 000 bail each pending the outcome of their appeals.
Judge Ronnie Bosielo said at the time of sentencing that the murder was a ”well thought out and orchestrated plot” to assassinate Alli.
”There is no doubt in my mind, having had the misfortune to see the pictures of the deceased … that he died a profoundly painful and cruel death.
”Witnesses at the crime scene described to the court in graphic terms how the deceased was burnt alive. It is common cause that he had suffered 100% burns,” the judge said. — Sapa