Cape Town - Alleged underworld kingpin, Nafiz Modack, miraculously forgot the pin code of his cellphone on the day he was arrested by the Hawks, the Western Cape High Court has heard.
This was revealed as a detective from the National Task Team returned to the witness stand yesterday, to be cross-examined by the defence teams.
After weeks on the stand, Captain Edward du Plessis continued to poke holes in the version given by Modack’s co-accused, Zane Kilian, at the mammoth underworld trial involving Modack and several others.
The group have been slapped with more than 100 charges for various criminal cases centred on the death of slain Anti-Gang Unit detective Charl Kinnear, who was assassinated outside his Bishop Lavis home on September 18, 2020.
Du Plessis, who spent weeks revealing how the Hawks team pieced together the digital evidence against Kilian, told the court that prior to his phones being confiscated, Modack deleted his WhatsApp and cleared his photo gallery. However, cops found a folder of screen shots from WhatsApp chats in a backup folder, showing the various ways in which Kinnear and others were tracked.
Responding to questions by Kilian’s legal representative, advocate Pieter Nel, about whether the cellphones of other accused were also downloaded, Du Plessis said police could never access Modack’s phone: “Nafiz Modack’s phone was seized and on the day of his arrest he forgot his pin code to his phone.”
Nel told the court that Kilian denied that Modack was his “boss” and instead claimed Modack obtained this name by others as he was known for wearing [Hugo] Boss branded clothing. But the snappy detective hit back with screen shots and bail application records showing Kilian continually addressing Modack as “boss”.
Questioned about pictures showing Kilian and two armed men posing with Modack, Nel told the court that his client’s version was that he had met Modack and assisted by providing security during his appearance at a Gauteng court, but claims he was only brandishing a gas pellet gun.
The adamant detective dismissed Kilian’s claims that he did not know pinging was illegal, and chuckles were heard in the courtroom when Du Plessis dismissed Kilian’s view that his muscular physique aided his debt collections.
Cape Argus