Background to twins’ arrest outlined in court
A STATEMENT by a suspected South African Islamic State supporter to police led to the arrest of the Thulsie twins.
Brandon-Lee and Tony- Lee Thulsie appeared in the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court yesterday in a bid to secure their freedom.
The 23-year-old identical twins, arrested in anti-terrorism raids in Newclare, west of Johannesburg, and Azaadville in Krugersdorp last month on terrorism charges, want their arrest declared unlawful.
Investigating officer, Warrant Officer Wynand Olivier, of the Hawks’ crimes against the state unit, said he began monitoring the brothers after receiving information on their alleged plans to join IS from the SAPS crime intelligence unit, State Security Agency and foreign intelligence agencies.
“We had no reason to doubt this information,” he told the court.
He said they learnt the twins were stopped from flying to Syria via Turkey after their family alerted the airline to their plans.
“We learnt the twins and a Ranaldo Smith wanted to fly out of South Africa.
“Months later we were alerted by South Africa’s border officials that all three, along with an Abdul Hamed Fynn, crossed into Mozambique.”
Olivier said he monitored the group’s social media postings.
From the trio’s Facebook postings he believed they were IS supporters.
“A foreign intelligence agency then told us that a ’Simba’ [identified in court as Tony-Lee] was planning an imminent attack in South Africa.
“It was their fifth communication on Simba that had us worried . . . it was about him asking for permission from a senior IS leader to launch an attack here,” Olivier said.
“It became clear he was building an explosive device and was just looking for a trigger [mechanism] to set it off.”
He said they then applied for a search warrant.
In the raid on Smith’s home, Olivier said Smith gave them a statement about who Simba was and what he allegedly planned to do.
“He told us he got out of that life [IS] and had tried to convince the Thulsie’s against IS, but was unsuccessful.