Czech fugitive Radovan Krejcir’s lawyers were meeting on Thursday morning following reports of a possible deal with the Hawks.
“We will speak on the matter after 9am,” lawyer Piet du Plessis told the South African Press Association.
He was responding to a report in the Times newspaper, which said Krejcir’s lawyers “desperately scrambled to strike a special deal with police top brass to prevent his arrest”.
The report said that Du Plessis sent a letter on Wednesday to police National Commissioner Bheki Cele and Gauteng police commissioner Mzwandile Petros, “pleading with them” to cancel the warrant of arrest. His attorneys apparently asked that Krejcir not be handcuffed or held in custody. They want him instead just to be summoned to appear in court.
Du Plessis said he would only comment on the letter after a meeting to be held on Thursday morning.
Hawks spokesperson McIntosh Polela said he had no knowledge of a letter being sent to Cele. “I don’t know why he wants to prevent his arrest, and don’t know if any efforts to prevent his arrest will succeed.”
Cars confiscated
The South African Revenue Service (Sars) on Wednesday confiscated a Lamborghini and Ferrari belonging to Krejcir. Sars spokesperson Adrian Lackay said the vehicles were confiscated from Krejcir’s home in Bedfordview, Johannesburg.
“It is part of the efforts by the state and law enforcement agencies involved in this case to secure assets and prevent assets from being dissipated while investigations continue.”
The Hawks said on Wednesday that a hit list found at Krejcir’s house included the names of slain underworld boss Cyril Beeka, security consultant Paul O’Sullivan and a state prosecutor.
The Hawks raided Krejcir’s upmarket house in Bedfordview, east of Johannesburg, on Tuesday night. Krejcir was not at home.
“The aim was to arrest a 42-year-old suspect who is wanted on charges of fraud and murder,” Polela said at the time.
Krejcir has reportedly twice been convicted in absentia in the Czech Republic for fraud.
Mistaken identity
Meanwhile, the Hawks caused an estimated R100 000 damage to a house it mistook for Krejcir’s property during the raid, Beeld reported on Thursday.
“My property was destroyed after they, among other things, damaged the front gate, garage door and front door and ransacked every room in the house,” the owner of the house, Simon Guidetti, told the Afrikaans daily.
“They even ripped the security gates in the house out of the walls,” said Guidetti, who is Krejcir’s neighbour.
He said he estimated the damage to be in the region of R100 000.
The Hawks used a Nyala armoured vehicle to gain access to Guidetti’s property, which they believed was Krejcir’s house.
“They mistook the gate for the suspect’s gate,” Hawks spokesperson McIntosh Polela said on Wednesday. “They went through that house [the wrong house] and over that wall. It provided easy access to the suspect’s house.”
Polela told the Star that the Hawks would pay for the damage caused. — Sapa