Johnathan Paoli
THE White River Magistrates Court has postponed the case against the 95 Libyans arrested in connection with an illegal military camp in White River, Mpumalanga to the end of the month, in order to allow for further investigation.
The Libyans appeared in court on Monday on charges of contravening the Immigration Act and the Magistrate Eddie Hall postponed the matter to 26 August, following applications by both the state and defence for a postponement.
Hall ruled on the application by the media and said no faces of the accused should be shown, no live streaming of proceedings and no recording of private conversations will be allowed.
In addition, the magistrate said that pictures can be taken before or after proceedings and that private conversations with the accused can only occur with consent from the state and defence attorneys.
Hall held that the accused will remain in custody until the next trial date.
Speaking ahead of the trial, provincial National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson Monica Nyuswa said the foreign nationals stood accused of misrepresenting their visa applications.
Allegedly they applied for study visas, however their subsequent exposure in the midst of military training, called into question their intentions.
Nyuswa confirmed that currently 91 of the accused are being held in a correctional facility, while the remaining four are in police custody.
The matter was postponed due to the need for an Arabic interpreter.
The spokesperson said the nationals are expected to be denied bail due to the particular nature of their circumstances, and the manner in which they had been caught operating.
“The court felt that the accused must not be released since they do not have fixed addresses and that the only place where they can be kept is in custody. The state will be opposing bail,” Nyuswa said.
The Libyan government has denied links to the individuals and indicated that it will work with the South African government in order to get to the bottom of things.
Meanwhile, 90 undocumented Ethiopian nationals, who were allegedly being kept against their will and under inhumane conditions, have been rescued in Sunnydale Ridge, Johannesburg.
The South African Police Service (SAPS) national spokesperson Athlenda Mathe said a multidisciplinary team, led by the Special Task Force (STF) unit, found the nationals, following the tracing of a kidnap for ransom victim.
Mathe confirmed the undocumented nationals who were found locked up, confined and packed into rooms, and said all were subsequently taken to medical facilities in the area for care.
She said the kidnapped victim was found among the Ethiopian nationals and also rescued.
“The victim had been kidnapped in Benoni on Tuesday afternoon and his kidnappers immediately started demanding hundreds of thousands of ransom money from his family,” Mathe said.
The two alleged human traffickers and kidnappers found on the property have been arrested and are likely to face charges of kidnapping and human trafficking, in the Palm Ridge Magistrate court.
She said the case has been handed over to the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigations (HAWKS) for further investigations, and thanked the hard work from various law enforcement agencies.
“The operation would not have been successful without the work of the crime intelligence unit, organised crime detectives unit, Sandringham and Daveyton SAPS as well as private security,” Mathe said.
INSIDE POLITICS
