Ten of the 13 Hawks officers accused of torturing and murdering a suspect in their custody have pleaded not guilty.
|||Cape Town - Ten of 13 Hawks officers accused of torturing and murdering a suspect in their custody have pleaded not guilty.
Three are yet to plead.
They appeared in the Western Cape High Court before Judge Robert Henney on Thursday. Each of them faces several charges - up to 11 - relating to the death of New Crossroads resident Sidwell Mkwambi, 24.
It is the State’s case that the alleged crime stems from an incident on January 18, 2009 when police officers took four suspects to New Crossroads to verify their addresses in preparation for a bail hearing.
In an attack, their vehicles were shot at and four people, two policemen and two suspects, were wounded.
A few weeks later on the night of February 9, 2009 all of the officers on trial had been on duty and a few of them had questioned Mitchells Plain resident Mthuthuzeli Rantaoleng at his house in connection with the shooting.
The State believes they assaulted him in front of his family and then later at the police offices in Bellville South.
The following morning, their probe led them to Philippi where two more men, Siyabulela Njova and Mkwambi were taken into custody. The State alleged the trio were tortured, suffocated with a plastic bag, forced to strip naked and beaten with a wooden stick. A post-mortem showed Mkwambi had died of multiple injuries.
But when officer Tobezi Jam Jam and his co-accused Norton Ndabambi, Banele Mgogodlo, Ludwe Mzana, Nkosikhona Mthembu, Zamikaya Mbali, Reginald Mtshali, Wayne Louw, Edmunt Sombo and Siseko Mtotywa pleaded not guilty to their respective charges yesterday, they maintained that while they had taken the men into custody, they had not assaulted the men and that they had no knowledge of such assaults.
It was also their version that Mkwambi had indicated that he was prepared to point out the addresses of two more suspects in the shooting, as well as the firearms used.
But he had died, they said, because he’d jumped from a moving vehicle while they were on their way.
The remaining accused, George Ainslie, Mphathi Velani and Riaan Kielblock, are yet to plead.
The charges include murder, attempted murder, assault with the intent to do grievous bodily harm and kidnapping.
Prosecutors Alta Collopy and Phitus Palesa, however, have withdrawn two theft charges.
They contend that the group acted in common purpose in killing Mkwambi - a matter of contention, which prompted the defence to launch an application for the State to provide them with further information and documentation on it.
Judge Henney on Thursday dismissed the application, saying the State wasn’t expected to prove at this early stage of the trial whether the accused had acted in common purpose.
The trial continues on Monday with the first witness expected to be called.
leila.samodien@inl.co.za
Cape Times