Man linked to IS charged with murder of missing couple
HOPES of finding missing couple Rod and Rachel Saunders alive have slipped away, with police charging a man linked to their disappearance with two counts of murder.
Ahmad Jackson Mussa‚ 36‚ who carries the ominous moniker “Bazooka”‚ appeared in the Verulam Magistrate’s Court yesterday.
He was arrested in a raid by Hawks counter-terror operatives at a hideaway in Newlands‚ outside Durban.
Mussa‚ along with alleged IS acolytes Sayfudeen Aslam del Vecchio‚ Fatima Patel and their teenage neighbour Themba Xulu‚ is accused of engineering the disappearance of the Cape Town-based British botanists in February.
Startling allegations that the vanished couple may have been stalked as a “good hunt” by Del Vecchio and Patel‚ apparently to strike fear into the hearts of those opposed to IS‚ have already been placed before the Verulam Magistrate’s Court.
Magistrate Vallaraman Kathuravaloo dressed down the Malawian national‚ who has yet to secure legal representation.
The court heard that Mussa had an expired passport which had been seized by police‚ and that his asylum papers had been lost.
Kathuravaloo instructed the legal aid board to make a determination as to whether they could represent foreign nationals.
“Ask him which national park he came through‚” he said tersely.
Furthermore‚ he instructed the board to contact the Malawi embassy to enquire further about his immigration status.
Mussa was remanded in custody and will appear alongside his co-accused on April 12.