State withdraws ‘bogus case’ against Sibiya, Dramat
“THE State does not have evidence against us…it was a bogus case.”
This was the assertion of former Gauteng Hawks head general Shadrack Sibiya, moments after the State provisionally withdrew charges of kidnapping, defeating the ends of justice and illegal deportation in terms of the Immigration Act against him.
Charges were also withdrawn against former Hawks national head Anwa Dramat, who appeared alongside Sibiya in the High Court in Pretoria yesterday.
State prosecutor Advocate George Baloyi told the court the prosecution decided to withdraw the charges against Dramat and Sibiya after they made successful representations to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).
Advocate Baloyi, however, said the State would continue with its prosecution of another Hawks top cop, Lesley Maluleke, who is facing similar charges.
The three were charged in 2016 following allegations that several Zimbabweans were kidnapped and deported to their country between 2010 and 2011 without proper extradition processes being followed.
The State said they would not oppose any move by Maluleke to make representations to the NPA to ask for the withdrawal of charges against him. Maluleke is due in court on November 12.
Dramat walked out of court to join a relative and friends who came to support him. Sibiya was adamant in expressing their innocence. “There is no evidence against us. They should have given us a permanent stay of prosecution,” he said.
The charges were “engineered and manufactured” against him and Dramat but he stopped short of revealing who was behind this.
Sibiya said the criminal charges had affected him financially, saying he spent “thousands of rands” on legal fees.
“We were not involved in the rendition,” Sibiya said.
He further said their prosecution was based “on false evidence because of a hidden agenda”.
He was equally scathing about the outcome of the internal disciplinary case against him saying “the presiding officer acknowledged in his ruling that witnesses lied during the case but he continued to dismiss me. He said I was Gauteng Hawks head, I should have known”, he said.
Moses Dlamini, national spokesperson for the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) – also came out in support of Sibiya and Dramat. Ipid had made a recommendation to the NPA to drop charges against Sibiya and Dramat, but the recommendation was ignored.