Legal representation issue delays ISIS court case
DISRUPTION was the order of the day when ISIS-linked couple Sayfudeen Aslam Del Vecchio and Bibi Fatima Patel appeared in the Verulam Magistrate’s Court on Thursday with their co-accused, Themba Xulu and Ahmad Jackson Mussa.
Del Vecchio and Patel are believed to have masterminded the kidnapping of Cape Townbased British botanists Rod and Rachael Saunders, while Mussa
– a Malawian national – is being charged with two counts of murder after he led police to the Tugela River Mouth where he pointed out the area in which he claimed the elderly botanists’ bodies had been dumped.
Proceedings began three hours late with the Saunders murder case the only matter scheduled for Court A after other cases for the day were moved to another court.
However, proceedings had to be adjourned as the court heard that Mussa‚ who previously requested legal aid‚ had changed his mind. The lawyer assigned to him by the court was discharged.
Resuming proceedings after a short adjournment, Mussa, now unrepresented, told the court he would like to appoint his own private attorney.
Mussa said he previously did not understand the options available to him in court as an interpreter had not been present during his first appearance.
Magistrate Chris Annamalai then shifted his attention to instructing attorney, Nadeem Mohammed, acting on behalf of Del Vecchio and Patel.
He told the court he had been informed of an issue of conflict of interest which first needed to be addressed.
The court heard that during the morning Mohammed, together with the legal aid representative, had consulted with Mussa in his holding cell.
Senior State Prosecutor Adele Barnard made a submission, pointing out that Mohammed, being an officer of that law, should have known better than to consult with an accused he is not representing.
However Advocate Jay Naidoo, leading the defence counsel on behalf of Del Vecchio and Patel, said he did not see anything wrong.
‘Accused four (Mussa) saw one of my instructing attorneys (Mohammed) to request his services.
‘When Mohammed realised it would present a conflict of interest, he ended the consultation with the accused,’ Naidoo told the court.
Magistrate Annamalai grilled Mohammed on this point, noting that his behaviour was ‘unethical and inappropriate’, before ruling that the bail application for Del Vecchio and Patel be held over until the issue with Mussa’s legal representation was finalised.
The matter was held over until 25 April.
Meanwhile, the media are yet to be granted permission to photograph or film the court case. The SABC submitted a formal application to obtain rights to film inside court.