The man accused of murdering Teazers boss Lolly Jackson almost five years ago was granted a postponement by the Palm Ridge regional court this morning.
Although George Louca did not appear in person, apparently due to an issue with his police escort, his lawyer Owen Blumberg requested more time from the court, in order to make representations to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).
Louca will deny in his representations to the NPA that he shot and killed Jackson. It has been reported that Louca will in fact point to his one time boss and now-kidnapping accused, Czech fugitive Radovan Krejcir, as the true culprit.
The City Press reported on Sunday that Louca made the Krejcir claim in a statement he signed in November last year, although Hawks investigators have not yet received a copy.
According to the report, which quoted forensic consultant Paul O’Sullivan – who has been investigating Krejcir since he arrived illegally in South Africa in 2007 – Krejcir shot Jackson after the two had a “verbal and then a physical dispute concerning money laundering”.
Louca allegedly then fled the scene after Krejcir reportedly asked him to drag Jackson’s body to the garage.
The strip club boss’s murder trial was due to start this morning.
Total secrecy
Jackson was shot in in May 2010 at Louca’s rented house in Edleen, east of Johannesburg. Louca then fled and managed to escape back to his home in Limassol, Cyprus.
Louca was extradited under total secrecy in February last year in order to stand trial in South Africa for Jackson’s murder.
Before he fled, Louca allegedly called former Gauteng crime intelligence boss Joey Mabasa and confessed to killing the Teazers boss.
In 2012, South African authorities began a process to have him extradited to the country, after he was detained by local police in Cyprus.
Louca made several attempts to evade extradition but he failed when he lost his final appeal in 2013 in the Cypriot Supreme Court.
‘I didn’t pull the trigger’
The Star reported two years ago that Louca denied killing Jackson. In a recorded conversation, Louca reportedly told the newspaper he had instead witnessed the murder.
“They [the police] know I didn’t pull the trigger. How could I shoot him in my house? But I was there, I saw what happened. They forced me to pull him. They didn’t know how to open the garage door, I did.”
Louca reportedly felt his life was in danger as several members of his family had been threatened.
He claimed he’d called intelligence boss Mabasa – not to confess he killed Jackson as was reported, but to tell him who had. “I called the fucking police. I told Mabasa who killed Lolly. He organised for a meeting. He said come to harbour and all four were there. I saw them and I ran.”
The trial has been postponed to April 20. – Staff reporter