An “ethical issue“ has brought the trial of alleged underworld kingpin, Nafiz Modack, to an abrupt halt at the Western Cape High Court.
The much-anticipated return of Modack and 14 other accused after weeks of being on hold during the court recess, left those at court confused on Monday when proceedings failed to take off.
Shortly before 10am, legal teams were called into the chambers of Judge Robert Henney as rumours swirled in the courtroom about an alleged conflict of interest regarding legal fees of defence lawyers appointed for the trial.
After waiting several hours, the courtroom was informed that proceedings would only commence at 3pm, but shortly after 2pm legal teams were called back to the building to appear before Judge Henney along with the accused.
In the dock several of Modack’s co-accused could be seen chatting in what appeared to be different groupings while Modack was seen whispering to his younger brother, Yaseen.
To date, five legal representatives have been appointed to all 15 accused of which only one is private counsel while the rest are being funded by Legal Aid SA.
Finally addressing the court, Judge Henney explained he had been approached by all the counsel in chambers to discuss an issue with regards to a possible conflict of interest of one of the lawyers in this matter.
The judge explained that the legal representative in question had been advised to seek further legal advice and guidance from senior counsel regarding the trial.
Henney said: “I am not at this stage going to go into detail about that.
“There is a request that this matter be postponed to Wednesday so that the attorney can take the necessary legal advice and report back to court and if necessary we will at a later stage place on regard what this whole... [issue] is about.
“If the parties are happy, then that is how we will deal with this at a later stage.”
Meanwhile, Advocate Scanlyn Collins told the court that his client Riyaad Gesant was attacked by officials at Pollsmoor Prison during a search.
He said his client had blue marks on his face and was in immense pain.
Collins also highlighted that his client’s weight had dropped dramatically in recent weeks, and Henney ordered that he be held in the hospital section of the prison.
The case was postponed to 31 July.
Modack and his co-accused are facing over 100 charges in the mammoth underworld trial centred around the murder of slain AGU detective, Lieutenant-Colonel Charl Kinnear.