Lawyers acting for KwaZulu-Natal Hawks boss, Major-General Johan Booysen, are expected to argue the criminal charges against him were trumped up.
|||Durban - Lawyers acting for KwaZulu-Natal Hawks boss, Major-General Johan Booysen, are expected to argue the criminal charges against him were trumped up without any evidence if prosecution authorities fail to provide them with reasons for his indictment.
The claim has been made by Booysen’s legal team, reacting to a letter from the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) saying there had been no signed record setting out the decision to prosecute him.
Last month Booysen sought an order in the Durban High Court to set aside the decision to prosecute him on charges of murder, assault, racketeering and unlawful possession of firearms and ammunition. He also called on the NPA to disclose the record which led to his prosecution.
A source close to the matter yesterday accused the NPA of failing to follow its own policy guidelines.
“Racketeering charges are a very serious offence. Before the charges are brought, the matter is thoroughly investigated. The DPP (Director of Public Prosecutions) then compiles a memo which is sent to the (NPA) prosecutions chief. The prosecutions chief has to be convinced why the certificate for prosecution should be signed.”
In the NPA letter to Booysen, it stated that
acting prosecutions chief, advocate Nomgcobo Jiba, had taken the decision to prosecute Booysen by going through the dockets, he said.
But there were more than 28 dockets, the source said. “It took more than a month for an experienced team of detectives to scrutinise the dockets.”
An advocate and an international expert on racketeering from the US had been called in by Booysen’s team to look at the dockets. “None of them could find an iota of evidence that warranted Jiba signing the prosecution certificate.”
The source said the NPA had until Friday to reply to Booysen’s court papers.
“If they do not reply by then, we can safely assume that the decision to prosecute was made with no evidence on hand.”
”The team went through the dockets with a fine-tooth comb. After summarising the dockets, they prepared a comprehensive report. The report comprises 200 typed pages detailing problems with the dockets.”
The source said it would have been impossible for Jiba to have gone through all the dockets by herself.
“Booysen is asking that the certificate Jiba signed - which resulted in the charges against him - be declared unlawful.”
The source said Booysen was determined to find out what prompted Jiba to prosecute.
In its letter last week, the NPA also said that the Durban High Court had no jurisdiction to hear his application, the source said, adding that Booysen, through his attorney Carl van der Merwe, was asked to bring the application in the Pretoria High Court – even though he had been charged in Durban.
Neither NPA spokeswoman, Bulelwa Makeke, nor Independent Complaints Directorate spokesman, Moses Dlamini, could be reached for comment by the time of publication.
In his court application, Booysen said he believed he became a target after an investigation under his watch into certain procurement irregularities revealed possible corruption between police officers and a Durban businessman.
He said the investigation was sufficiently sensitive to cause him to tread on the toes of higher ranking individuals.
”There are people, within the police as well as outside, who would prefer to sideline me for as long as possible to prevent me from doing my job.”
In February, Booysen and 29 other accused, mostly from the disbanded Cato Manor organised crime unit, were indicted on more than 100 charges, including murder, housebreaking with the intent to commit murder, racketeering, assault, defeating the ends of justice, as well as unlawful possession of firearms and ammunition.
But Booysen said he had been falsely implicated.
In his application, he questioned why the unit commander of the SAPS organised crime unit, Colonel Rajen Aiyer, had not been arrested.
He said while the indictment list contained 309 state witnesses, there were, in fact, only 290, and that his name only featured in two of the 28 dockets, but in no way was he implicated in any of the incidents described by the witnesses.
Booysen described a statement by his arresting officer, Colonel Pharasa Daniel Ncube, as baseless and without merit.
Ncube alleged Booysen had managed the operation or activities of an enterprise; had promoted the actions of killing by recommending monetary awards and certificates; had participated by supplying the information of the whereabouts of the deceased and was paid money by a taxi association for having killed their rivals.
Booysen claimed Ncube did not have first-hand knowledge of the events he deposed to and had based his contentions on the evidence of others.
In his affidavit, Booysen accused the acting national director of public prosecutions of failing to comply with policy directives when she authorised his prosecution.
Daily News