Video-clip items link disputed in perlie case
A SCALE and a bucket depicted in a video along with what looks like perlemoen being weighed caused quite a stir between the state and defence yesterday as they argued over whether or not the exhibits before court were the same as in the footage.
The damning video clip was found on the phone of racketeering accused Julian Brown following his arrest in July last year.
Warrant Officer Armien Humphries, of the Organised Crime Unit, told the Port Elizabeth High Court that unique markings such as a sticker on the front of the scale confiscated following an explosion at a warehouse, made him believe it was the same scale seen in the footage.
An explosion had taken place at an illegal perlemoen factory in Nelson Mandela Bay’s industrial township in Lindsay Road in 2015. Two foreign nationals were killed.
The state is now trying to link this warehouse to Brown, 32, the alleged syndicate leader.
He stands accused alongside Eugene “Boesman” Victor and Brandon Turner of racketeering, among other perlemoen-related charges.
Defence attorney Paul Roelofse, for Victor and Turner, said there was nothing to say the same sticker could not be found on hundreds of other scales in the country.
In addition, Roelofse said, the handles of the bucket before court were shaped differently from the handles of the bucket in the video, filled to the brim with what is alleged to have been perlemoen sauce.
Brown’s defence advocate, Terry Price SC, said the clip was sent to Brown and that he further had no personal involvement with it.
Nicky Erasmus, of the Tactical Task Force, established by the Department of Forestry and Fisheries, later testified that they had been tasked with investigating poaching along Marine Drive.
He said their investigations started off with observations, during which time they photographed the alleged poachers and drew up graphs, in which the main role-players were pinpointed.
Testimony continues today.