(Photo by David Harrison/M&G)
The bail hearing of businessman and alleged underworld figure Nafiz Modack and his co-accused is set to start on Thursday and continue on 29 June and 1 July in the Blue Downs regional court in Cape Town.
Modack was arrested in April after a high-speed chase through the streets of Century City, the result of a joint operation between the Hawks and the anti-corruption task team.
A raft of charges were brought against Modack, Zane Kilian, Jacques Cronjé, Ricardo Morgan, Janick Adonis, Amaal Jantjies and police officer Ashley Tabisher.
According to the state’s indictment, the accused face charges that include conspiracy to commit murder, murder, illegal cellphone tracking, racketeering, kidnapping, intimidation, corruption, gang-related extortion and contravening the Prevention of Organised Crime Act.
After two months of court shenanigans and unplanned Covid-19 delays, the bail hearings of the suspects except Morgan, who has been released on bail, will begin.
The state places Modack at the top of its lengthy indictment by alleging he “managed” the illegal operations and activities of an “enterprise” between October 2019 and September 2020.
Between this period Kilian, Cronjé, Morgan and Tabisher, as well as Adonis and Jantjies, who are both in police custody, were either employed by or associated with the enterprise that instructed unlawfully activities dating back to the attempted murder of the anti-gang unit cop, Lieutenant-Colonel Charl Kinnear, in 2019.
The state alleges that Modack, Adonis and Jantjies are responsible for the failed hand grenade attack on Kinnear’s home in Bishop Lavis in November 2019. Almost a year after this incident, Kinnear was assassinated outside his home on 18 September 2020.
Adonis and Jantjies face charges of conspiracy to commit murder, attempted murder, conspiracy to possess explosives, conspiracy to acquire explosives, the illegal possession of a firearm and contravention of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act.
Jantjies was denied bail in the Parow regional court in May this year because of evidence on tape recordings, messages between him and Modack, as well as a 56-page affidavit by Warrant Officer Trevor Shaw.
Shaw supported the state’s allegations that Jantjies and Adonis carried out the orders from Modack who, according to the state, ordered the hand grenade hit on Kinnear.
The Daily Maverick has previously reported that state prosecutor Blaine Lazarus said a meeting during which the hand grenade plan was allegedly arranged took place on 14 November 2019.
The state’s evidence further shows the alleged corrupt relationship between the anti-gang unit member Tabisher and the co-accused. It is alleged that Tabisher accepted R10 000 and a cellphone valued at R3 500 from Modack in return for information about when the police were planning to raid Modack’s property.
It is alleged that Modack, Kilian, Cronjé and Morgan worked together in March 2020 to track down, intimidate and kidnap Sameer Valley, claiming he owed their client, business mogul Shanil Maharaj, R600 000.
Modack, with the assistance of Kilian and Cronjé, allegedly also carried out the failed assassination attempt on criminal defence lawyer William Booth outside his home in Oranjezicht on 9 April last year.