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State argues that the brothers could flee and join their friend in the Islamist insurgency in Mozambique.
The state successfully objected to bail for the Thulsie twins accused of terrorism in the Johannesburg High Court on Thursday, arguing that if released they could join the Islamist insurgents fighting in northern Mozambique.
This was what had happened to his close friend and former accomplice Renaldo Smith, a witness in his case who had fled South Africa, prosecutor Adele Barnard told the court.
Brandon-Lee and Tony-Lee Thulsie, 27, were arrested in July 2016 and charged with terrorism and other crimes stemming from two alleged attempts to travel to Syria to join the Islamic State, as well as hatching plans to bomb or otherwise attack the US, UK. , Russia, French and Israeli embassies, Jewish individuals and interests, the South African state arms company Denel, and Shiite Muslim mosques in this country.
Smith, a close friend, who had converted to Islam with the twins in 2013, joined them in attempting to fly from OR Tambo International Airport in April 2015 on a Qatar Airways flight to Turkey, the state affidavits said. . The investigating officer of the case, Wynand Olivier, testified that from Turkey they intended to enter Syria to join the Islamic State.
But someone tipped off Qatar Airways of their true intentions, and airline officials wouldn’t let them get on the flight. In July they tried a different route, driving to Maputo and trying to board a Kenya Airways flight. But again they were blocked.
Smith later became a witness in the case, but then disappeared. According to Barnard, it resurfaced in Cabo Delgado province in northern Mozambique after joining insurgents who are wreaking havoc there and who are affiliated with the Islamic State.
Barnard told the High Court on Thursday that on May 28, 2018, an incident report was received regarding the beheading and murder of locals in Macomia and Monjane, in northern Mozambique, “where 10 citizens were brutally killed in these attacks.”
He added that on May 31, 2018, Twitter user @JihadoScope tweeted that, “A day after reports of Islamist militants beheading 10 people in Mozambique, Islamic State supporters on Telegram circulate photos allegedly showing militants in the country and promise a next ‘Bay’ah’ or pledge of allegiance ‘.
This tweet accompanied a photograph of several armed men posing in the veld of what was supposedly Cabo Delgado. Barnard’s submission to the court was that one of the men was Renaldo Smith. He said it was unclear whether Smith had contacted the Thulsies, “but in light of their close friendship, the possibility cannot be ruled out.”
In any case, he told the judge, the possibility that the Thulsies “are trying to meet their friend in Mozambique” cannot be excluded. He stressed that the two Thulsies “had used this route before,” referring to their July 2015 trip to Maputo to try to fly to Syria.
In general, he said, the Thulsies should not be granted bail, as it would be too easy for them to hide their identities and disappear. They had an immediate national and international support system that they could use to evade prosecution. They would then pose a real threat to national and international security due to the international nature of the crimes they are accused of and the fact that they already have the skills and knowledge to commit a terrorist attack in South Africa.
Brandon-Lee said in an affidavit that he and his brother were being held “in circumstances that are clearly not suitable for any human being and in individual cells.”
“We are effectively isolated from other prisoners … Our cells are extremely cold and dirty,” he said.
They also argued that they should be released due to the long delay in bringing them to trial, their poor health and the weakness of the state’s case against them.
But Judge Ramarumo Monama dismissed the request for bail. He said all of the delays in taking the case to trial had been caused by the Thulsies and their legal team, except for the recent delay caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. There was an “established law” that said that poor health was not a reason to release prisoners and that they should seek treatment in prison. And, he said, the state had brought a strong case against the Thulsies for committing crimes that were very serious and could even incur life sentences.
Monama urged both parties to work together to bring the case to trial without further delay. DM
