Investigating officer grilled

THE investigating officer in the case of former provincial commissioner Arno Lamoer and four others spent another day on the witness stand.

Lamoer and three brigadiers: Darius van der Ross, Sharon Govender and her husband Colin Govender together with businessman Salim Dawjee face 109 charges of corruption, racketeering and money laundering involving R1.6 million. Defence advocate William King, Senior Counsel SC, questioned Colonel Abdul Enus, commander of an investigative unit in the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, about his case and when he found out that Captain Philip Lourens was also working on a similar case. The trial-within-a-trial is focusing on the legal validity of the surveillance of the accused.

The questioning of the trial appearted to be covering the same ground that had already been covered in the case, with State advocate Billy Downer raising objection.

King questioned the witness about the details regarding the overlap in his case and that of Lourens from Crime Intelligence, who was conducting surveillance on the accused.

Enus stated that it was possible that Lourens had known that they were working on the same case, prior to him having figured it out. “We were not keeping tabs on what each of us had.”

King said there had been 17 recorded meetings before surveillance stopped in January 2014, but Enus stated that there were more. He also stated that Lourens would give him sparse information, but nothing in particular. According to Enus, it was Lourens who had hinted for him to visit Parow Firearms, as that was where accused Salim Dawjee had allegedly bought ammunition without a licence. The trial within a trial continues.