‘Prison changed my brother’
Man in racist video really is mentally unstable – family
Kessie Nair’s family was not coerced into claiming that the former Durban councillor was mentally unstable to help him escape criminal charges for calling President Cyril Ramaphosa the k-word‚ the Verulam magistrate’s court heard yesterday.
“That is absolute nonsense‚” Nair’s brother‚ Krishnan‚ said.
Krishnan was responding to his brother’s lawyer‚ Chris Gounden‚ who put it to him that the state had coerced the family to claim that Nair was not of sound mind to help him escape crimen injuria charges.
Testifying in support of the state’s application for Nair to be sent for a 28-day mental evaluation at Fort Napier‚ Krishnan said he had given his statement to police of his own free will.
He told the court that the family had been contacted by police after he had released a statement on social media‚ distancing himself and other relatives from the racist rant his brother had posted on Facebook.
In the statement‚ Krishnan stated that his brother was mentally unstable.
He told the court yesterday that Nair had changed after prison. “He wasn’t the same person that he had been before his incarceration‚” he said.
Krishnan did not expand on the changes. Nair, who served six years in prison for corruption, has been charged with seven counts of crimen injuria and two counts of incitement for his racist rant on video and social media posts.
In the video, he calls for Ramaphosa to be charged for “defrauding this nation‚ for oppressing this nation‚ for high treason‚ for being the source [of] all crime and violence and poor healthcare and poverty in this so-called true democracy”.
In a written post‚ Nair says: “Let me go down in history‚ becoming the first and last man to called [sic] the number one citizen‚ the state president” the k-word.
Nair intended to apply for bail last week, however, the state brought an application for him to be sent for mental observation at the Fort Napier Hospital for 28 days.
The defence have objected to the application‚ stating that Nair is not mentally unstable.
The state was expected to present its closing arguments late yesterday.