The defence teams for seven suspects facing a string of charges related to alleged hit murders for life insurance payouts say the state’s case is weak and based on circumstantial evidence.
Ballistic evidence from a murder in Whittlesea and a bullet casing found in an Audi in Gqeberha in 2022 led to the unravelling of a network of life insurance policy fraud and hit murders in the Eastern Cape over the past two years.
A series of murders left a trail of bodies in Nelson Mandela Bay, and now relentless investigations by police units across the Eastern Cape have linked these seemingly unrelated deaths to life insurance policy claims totalling about R3.7m.
Heavily armed police officers kept a close eye on proceedings in the Kariega Magistrate’s Court on Monday when five suspects linked to last week’s mass shooting at a KwaNobuhle drug den made their first appearance.
To prevent the rearrest of a Despatch man accused of raping his stepdaughter in Cape Town and later in Nelson Mandela Bay, the defence has asked that the two dockets be merged.