Support for drag queen’s family as his alleged killers appear in court

MEMBERS of the LGBTQ+ community arrived in their numbers at the Athlone Magistrate’s Court yesterday to support the family of slain drag queen Adnaan Davids.

Nazier Ishmael, Faziel Rademeyer and Aashieq Bachelor appeared briefly in court, where they stood accused of Davids’ murder. Davids was stabbed to death last week after being lured to a field.

The court heard that one of the accused held Davids down while the others stabbed him multiple times.

Their case has been postponed to March 16 for a bail application.

Davids’ murder was being labelled a hate crime by the LGBTQ+ community, said Sharon Cox, health and support services manager for the Triangle Project.

“Hopefully, more information will come out during the bail application, but we know words like ‘moffie’ and ‘vuil moffie’ were used.

“In all cases of hate crime that we deal with, whether they have been rapes or murders, we know it starts with an argument or name-calling, and escalates from there.

“He was openly gay and known for being gay and we know derogatory words like that were used,” Cox said.

Davids’ sister, Aziza, said her brother knew the accused.

“He was stabbed 25 times in the neck, face and back. We don’t want bail for any of them,” she said.

She said her brother had lodged a complaint of assault against two of the accused. “People loved him. I have no idea how to feel exactly, I don’t know how to feel about all of this,” she said.

In a separate incident, police arrested three men in connection with the rape of a lesbian.

The incident was in Grassy Park last Tuesday.

Grassy Park station commander Dawood Laing said two suspects aged 16 and a 21 were arrested.

He said they made a brief appearance in court last week.