Mystery of missing Isseri trial documents

NO BODY, NO CAUSE OF DEATH

MURDER accused Sateesh Isseri’s battle for access to documents to prepare for his trial has taken a strange turn, with an admission by the investigating officer that the family of the woman he allegedly murdered had a “copy of the docket” and three documents appear to be missing from it.

The Umhlanga businessman – charged with the murder of his girlfriend, Faieka Esop Ali, who disappeared without trace in February 2007 – launched a Durban High Court application pointing a finger at Colonel Mbuso Khumalo, claiming he was hiding documents in the docket from him.

What has now emerged is that there were two dockets, one opened in 2007 and closed as “undetected”, and a second reconstructed by Khumalo when he took over the matter in January last year.

Khumalo apparently acted to build the docket after complaints by Ali’s family that the matter had not been properly investigated.

Isseri claims he has been trying for months to get certain documents to prepare for his trial, set down for next month. He says he knows they exist, but Khumalo has refused to hand them over.

Khumalo, in his opposing affidavit, now says he does not have them – and discloses for the first time that there is another docket, believed to be a copy of the first, which somehow ended up in the hands of Ali’s family.

Khumalo says when he took over the investigation, the original docket had “passed through the hands of at least five investigating officers, one of whom is deceased and two of whom are no longer in the employ of the police”.

“I interviewed the family and was informed by the brother of the deceased that he was in possession of a copy of a docket. I do not recall whether he did inform as to where he obtained the copies and if he did, I do not now remember.

“I had no need for the copy. As a result of the poor state of the old docket, I restructured a new one. There is nothing sinister about this.”

He said that following repeated requests by Isseri’s lawyer for the documents, “it occurred to me at some stage that those documents might be in the copy of the old docket in the possession of the family”.

“I perused it and indeed I did find copies of more statements. I found copies of eight documents of the 11 which are the subject matter of the application.”

Khumalo said he gave these to the prosecutor.

With regard the other three, one is a picture which a private investigator said had been provided by the family.

Another was a statement regarding the handing over of a cellphone which could not be traced and a third, contents unknown, was also missing.

“I am unable to assist with these as they are not in my possession,” said Khumalo.

The alleged disappearance of these documents could have an impact on what will already be a tough case to prove for the prosecution, because there is no body or cause of death.

The indictment alleges Isseri was involved in an intimate relationship with Ali, who wanted to end it. She was last seen getting into his car, it states.

The murder trial has been set down from September 5 to 16. The matter involving the documents will be back in court next week.