The trial of three Cape Town police officials charged with theft and extortion ahs been postponed due to illness.
|||Cape Town -
Illness prevented the resumption on Monday of the trial in the Bellville Specialised Commercial Crime Court in Cape Town of three police officials charged with theft.
When the case was called before magistrate Sabrina Sonnenberg on Monday, prosecutor Xolile Jonas said one of the three lawyers in the trial had taken ill.
At his request, the matter was postponed to Tuesday.
Nkosinathi Mdiya, Mogamat Meniers and Heinrich Gordon, all based at the Diep River police station, allegedly broke the shack door of a self-confessed drug pedlar and addict, and confiscated a plastic bank bag containing the drug “tik” and cash.
However, at the police station, they allegedly demanded R100 each, and released Anton Pillay without pressing any charges.
Pillay testified at hearing in June.
Mdiya, a constable, is charged with two counts of theft, two of robbery and one of extortion (blackmail).
Meniers, a warrant officer, is charged with one count of theft and one of corruption, and Gordon, a sergeant, is charged with three counts of theft, two of corruption, two of extortion and two of robbery.
At the June hearing, Pillay, who is currently serving a prison sentence for housebreaking and theft, told the court he was asleep at an informal settlement, and groggy from drugs, when the police first knocked on his shack door and then broke it down.
The police confiscated the bank bag containing R1650 and 15 tik sticks, and took him to the police station.
He said he noticed that the money was R1000 short when it was counted in his presence.
He said Meniers and Gordon remarked that he had a lot of money, and said they would let him go if he gave them R100 each.
He testified that he did so, and was allowed to leave. - Sapa