Cape Town - Alleged gang boss, Jerome “Donkie” Booysen, has challenged the admissibility of cellphone calls in the trial of slain “steroid king” Brian Wainstein, saying the interception of his calls were unlawful.
This came to light in the Western Cape High Court yesterday, as Booysen and his co-accused returned for the continuation of the underworld trial centred on Wainstein’s murder. He was shot and killed in his Constantia home in August 2017.
Booysen, along with slain businessman, Mark Lifman, is charged for allegedly arranging the hit.
Booysen’s defence lawyer, Advocate Amanda Nel, yesterday voiced her objection as the State sought to present information obtained by the Hawks during the interception of calls between Lifman, Booysen and Andre Naude. This came amid testimony by a retired Hawks detective, who took the stand and outlined surveillance carried out on some of the accused during April 2017.
In her objection, Nel contended the information obtained was not relevant to the murder trial, but instead stemmed from an application dating back to 2014, when the Hawks obtained information about alleged drug sales. She highlighted the original application cited the names of Lifman, Booysen and Kenneth Hansen, and related instead to a different criminal trial, which has not yet commenced.
That trial related to the second recent arrest of Booysen along with
Hansen, Kristo Mariens, Clinton Langeveld, Jennen Jansen and Herbert Zoutman, who were slapped with 98 charges, including drug trafficking and charges under the Prevention of Organised Crime Act (POCA).
But Nel told Judge Vincent Saldanha that as that trial had not yet started, the evidence, which consists of the same cellphone interceptions, had not yet been put to the test.
She also highlighted that nowhere in the original applications to intercept the phones was Naude ever mentioned.
The advocate told the judge she would be raising objections on how the information was obtained and the provisions made by the Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of Communication-Related Information Amendment (RICA) Bill.
She asked the judge to take note of a recent request by President Cyril Ramaphosa to the National Assembly, to consider that the draft law may be vulnerable to constitutional challenge.
Last week, Ramaphosa said he was concerned that a number of constitutional matters in the bill passed by Parliament, required reconsideration.
“In the President’s view, the bill remains unconstitutional insofar as decisions in terms of section 25A(2)(b) of the draft law may lead to a subject of surveillance never being notified of the surveillance. The President also believes the legislation is deficient insofar as no review is possible of a decision in terms of section 25A(2)(b) to indefinitely suspend post surveillance notification obligations.”
The trial continues.
Cape Argus