A sinister plot, allegedly by police, to murder underworld kingpin, Nafiz Modack, has been revealed at the Western Cape High Court.
The bombshell was dropped by co-accused Janick Adonis as he submitted his plea explanation disputing the State’s evidence against him.
Modack and his co-accused returned to court for the mammoth underworld trial centred on the murder of slain Anti-Gang Unit (AGU) detective, Lieutenant- Colonel Charl Kinnear in September 2020.
As plea explanations got underway, Adonis shocked the court when he revealed that the grenade attack on Kinnear’s home in Bishop Lavis was fake.
In his plea, Adonis claimed he was approached by Kinnear and former AGU boss, Major-General Andre Lincoln, while in custody and told to help stage an attack on Kinnear.
He said he was told that after the staged attack, police had planned to confront Modack and then kill him while he was “trying to resist arrest”.
Adonis explains: “This stage attack would create the impression that Accused 1, through the attacker in this attack, attempted to murder Lieutenant-Colonel Kinnear, resulting in the SA Police Services to confront Accused 1 with the attack, then to create the impression that Accused 1 resisted arrest and then the SA Police Services would kill Accused 1 by shooting him.” (sic).
Adonis said he did not want to be part of the plan, but was forced to recruit Faeez Smith to throw a grenade at Kinnear’s house.
He claims the grenade had no firing pin and was not capable of exploding and claims the date and time for the attack was arranged with Kinnear to ensure his family was not present.
Adonis further says that on the day Smith was arrested outside Kinnear’s home, while walking with the grenade in his pocket, he was stopped by another police officer who was aware of the plan.
He adds: “The staged attack did not take place.
“The SA Police Service did not inform me why the staged attack did not take place and why Smith was arrested early.
“Even if Smith tried to execute the attack by throwing the hand grenade, it would result in a failure due to the harmless hand grenade.”
Meanwhile, Modack’s younger brother Yaseen told the court he was not guilty of any of the charges against him, which included money laundering, corruption and charges under the Prevention of Organised Crime Act (POCA).
According to the State’s case, Yaseen acted as the director of Empire Investment Cars and allegedly facilitated the payment of money to a middleman for the purpose of bribing high-ranking cops, which included Kinnear and Major-General Jeremy Vearey.
The indictment lists various charges relating to the payment of pings and alleged bribe money from the company account to various people, including Amaal Jantjies, who is a former girlfriend of Adonis.
Meanwhile outside court, about a dozen protesters carried placards saying Modack would spend another Ramadaan in the mang as a result of the alleged setup by AGU.