Long-time Pagad member Zakariyah Albertyn has been nabbed in connection with the murders of three Tanzanian men.
|||Cape Town - Another leading member of Pagad has been taken into custody in connection with the murders of three Tanzanian men in Athlone last week.
Long-time Pagad member Zakariyah Albertyn was arrested by police at his home in Manenberg on Monday night. He is being held at Bellville police station, Pagad spokesman Cassiem Parker said on Tuesday morning.
Police have yet to formally confirm the arrest. Spokesperson Captain FC van Wyk said the Hawks were investigating the case and would have to confirm the arrest.
Albertyn’s lawyer, Tashriq Ahmed, confirmed that Albertyn had been arrested, but said he could not comment until receiving information from the police and the investigating officer. Ahmed said that he had not been formally informed of the charges against Albertyn.
In 2001, Albertyn was convicted of the murders of Yunis and Fazlin Hassen and served seven years in prison.
Self-confessed Pagad hitman Abubakar Janodien, who turned state witness, testified that the couple were killed to dissuade Yunis’s brother from giving evidence in another Pagad-related trial.
Pagad’s national co-ordinator, Abdus Salaam Ebrahim, was arrested last Wednesday morning, hours after three Tanzanian men were shot and killed in Veld Road in Athlone. A South African woman was injured during the attack.
The State has assigned Piet Steyn, the prosecutor in several cases involving Pagad members in the early 2000s, to deal with the matter.
Cape Argus