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Former rugby player Zane Kilian briefly appeared in Cape Town Magistrates Court on 30 November in connection with the attempted murder of lawyer William Booth. (Photo: Vincent Cruywagen)
The murder bail request charged Zane Kilian in the case of the murdered senior Anti-Gang Unit member, Lt. Col. Charl Kinnear takes priority, which means that Kilian’s bail request in the case of the attempted murder of the main lawyer criminalist William Booth cannot continue until issued Kinnear process has been performed.
Zane Kilian’s attorney, Eric Bryer, said this on Monday, November 30, shortly after his client’s brief appearance in Cape Town Magistrates Court in connection with the attempted murder of criminal lawyer William Booth. Kilian was joined in the dock by co-defendants Kauthar Brown, Ebrahim Deare, Riyaad Gesant, Kim Kashiefa Smith and Igsaan Williams. They face charges of conspiracy to commit murder and attempted murder stemming from a failed attempt on Booth’s life in April 2020.
Kilian faces additional charges that include gang-related charges, illegal wiretapping, and accessing or intercepting any data related to the “ping” of Booth’s phone. An opposition affidavit deposited by the investigating officer indicates that Kilian had pinged Booth’s cell phone 658 times from March 6, 2020 to September 18, 2020, the day of Kinnear’s murder.
Kilian’s request for bail in the Booth matter was supposed to have been heard on Monday, but the prosecution told the court that the request for bail in the Kinnear matter was the determining factor and that therefore the request for bail in Booth’s business could not continue without a judgment in the Kinnear case.
This makes sense because the Booth affair stems from Kinnear’s assassination on September 18 in front of his home at 10 Gearing Road, Bishop Lavis, Cape Town. Kinnear’s assassination set in motion a process with far-reaching consequences and exposed deep-rooted corruption within police ranks, collusion with underworld figures, and large-scale cell phone pinging.
Bryer says that waiting for the outcome of the bail request in the Kinnear affair is a smart move and will avoid duplication of arguments and paperwork in the two cases. The affairs of Kinnear and Booth are closely related due to the cell phone ping that the state says the defendant made on Kinnear and Booth’s phones.
“If Kilian is denied bail in the Kinnear affair, then he will automatically be denied bail in the Booth affair,” Bryer said.
Meanwhile, Kilian’s request for bail in the Kinnear murder case, scheduled for Tuesday, December 1 at Bellville Regional Court, will be postponed after the prosecutor contracted Covid-19. Kilian’s attorney has already produced documents claiming that he will plead not guilty to all charges, arguing that the ping is the only evidence linking him to the crime.
In his affidavit, Kilian also implicates former police officer Bradly Goldblatt as a person of interest involving pinging, saying he had obtained the software and user code for Goldblatt’s cell phone ping tools. Kilian also claims that he later learned that neither the platform nor the code was unique to him, adding that other people were using the same platform and code.
When asked if the defense would pressure the state to reveal the identities of other people in the country who have been pinging cell phones, Kilian’s lawyer Johan van Aswegen He said: “We have mentioned Goldblatt and we want to know from the state what his participation in the ping is.
Kilian’s attorney further contends that his client began pinging around March 2020 and therefore cannot be linked to or implicated in murders or attempted murders prior to this date. Van Aswegen is optimistic about releasing Kilian on bail.
The state, on the other hand, believes it has an airtight case against Kilian, arguing that the defendant and everyone involved in the plot to kill Kinnear acted with a common purpose and that the defendant conspired with persons unknown to the state by virtue of doing ping. cell phone of the deceased with the intent to commit murder.
Kilian returns to the Cape Town Magistrates Court on Monday, December 14. DM / MC
