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Johannesburg - Czech fugitive Radovan Krejcir has claimed there was a conspiracy against him that went as high as national police commissioner General Riah Phiyega. This emerged in his bail hearing for the murder of Sam Issa in the Germiston Magistrate's Court on Tuesday.
"I believe it's an instruction from Riah Phiyega, the national commissioner, and also some, uh, this investigating team, which I believe that you are part of this conspiracy as well,'' he said to Prosecutor Lawrence Gcaba, as the public gallery burst out laughing.
"Well it may be funny for everybody else, but not for me," he said.
He implicated National Prosecuting Authority advocate Gerrie Nel, famous for the Oscar Pistorius trial; private investigator Paul O'Sullivan; a Captain Mendez in Interpol; suspended Gauteng Hawks head Major General Shadrack Sibiya; and Colonel Nkosana "Killer" Ximba in the conspiracy to arrest him on multiple charges.
He clarified later that Phiyega's part was to have him arrested.
He faces nine charges along with Bulgarian Lybohir Grigorov, Mfaniseni Memela, Nkanyiso Mafunda and Siboniso Miya, for the murder of Issa at around 06:00 on October 12, 2013.
Krejcir was asked whether he knew Joey Mabasa, a crime intelligence Gauteng officer that the now dead George Louka said he spoke to after strip club owner Lolly Jackson was killed. Louka said in his dying days that it was Krejcir that had shot Jackson, not him.
Louka died in prison shortly after that surprise claim.
Fleeing the Czech Republic on a bicycle
Krejcir said that he did not know Mabasa, even though his and Mabasa's wife had tried to start a business together.
Earlier, the court heard that Krejcir fled the Czech Republic on a bicycle using the altered passport of a friend. This was after he became an enemy of the state after an election.
Defending his use of aliases, Krejcir said that when one is running for one's life, a country understands that you don't use your own name to enter.
He has asked for asylum in South Africa, but it was turned down, and he is appealing this and his possible extradition to the Czech Republic.
This, he believes was part of the conspiracy to prevent him from leaving the country.
Phiyega was not involved in that conspiracy, but another one, to make sure he was arrested, he claimed.
He said he would not leave South Africa, as he had "hundreds of millions" invested here, and wanted to bring his wife Katherina and two children back to South Africa.
Life not under threat in SA
But he believed there was also a conspiracy against them, to prevent them from coming to South Africa to support him.
In spite of all the aliases and recent claims that Ximba had allegedly tried to threaten him, and the discovery of a car rigged with guns outside his business, Moneypoint, Krejcir said he would not run away from South Africa and that his life was not under threat here.
But then it emerged that he had complained that Ximba had threatened him, and lamented that the police had not even questioned him about this.
Gcaba found it hard to believe that every previous time Krejcir had felt his life was in danger, he would flee, but then said he would not do so in South Africa.
"I am just trying to tell you that my life is not in danger so I am not going to go this route," Krejcir replied.
Issa was gunned down at an intersection while in his black Audi. Police found at least 30 cartridges on the scene and connected a white Ford Ranger to the shooting.
"I believe I did not do any crime, so for me these crimes are not serious," said Krejcir, who has denied any involvement, saying he was drinking with friends in a restaurant and left about an hour before Issa was shot for the home of a woman friend in Linksfield.
The bail application continues.
