- A second lawyer has withdrawn from Zane Kilian's defence team in a case in which he is charged with the murder of Anti-Gang Unit detective Charl Kinnear.
- The Bellville Regional Court heard that advocate Johan van Aswegen discovered a conflict of interest on Wednesday.
- This is understood to relate to the submission of falsified documents on Kilian's private eye and security industry registration.
A second lawyer has withdrawn as Zane Kilian's representative in the case in which he is accused of the murder of Anti-Gang Unit detective Charl Kinnear.
The Bellville Regional Court heard that advocate Johan van Aswegen discovered that there was a conflict of interest on Wednesday.
The conflict is understood to relate to the instruction to submit allegedly falsified documents on Kilian's private eye and security industry registration.
In a previous sitting, the court heard that documents purporting to prove that Kilian was a licensed private investigator and a member of the Private Security Industry of SA were allegedly fraudulent. A fraud charge was added to Kilian's charges as a result of that.
Kilian was represented by Eckhard Rosemann at the time, with attorney Eric Brier instructing. Rosemann later withdrew from the matter and Van Aswegen took over, while Eric Brier continued to instruct.
Kilian's part-heard bail application was supposed to continue on Friday.
Police Special Task Force members carrying rifles with scopes and wearing camouflage, guarded the entrance to the courtroom and then positioned themselves inside when the matter was called. Another stood at the door leading between the courtroom and the entrance to the holding cells, and when court was adjourned they escorted the investigating officers out of the court.
Kilian appeared to have lost weight as he arrived in a cut off shirt and a long sleeved top underneath for the short hearing on Friday.
He has been in custody since his arrest. His bail application has been delayed numerous times, including for Covid-19-related isolations.
Without going into detail, the court was told that the conflict arose on Wednesday and was between Van Aswegen, Brier and Kilian.
The matter was postponed to March 4 in the wake of the withdrawal of Van Aswegen.
Kinnear was murdered outside his house in Bishop Lavis, Cape Town, on 18 September.
Kilian was arrested soon afterwards and was charged for murder, based on allegations that he tracked Kinnear via his mobile phone location thousands of times.
He has submitted that part of his work was to track cars flagged for repossession.
He has denied the murder charge, stating that he was in a chemist buying medication at the time of the murder.
However, the State submits that he provided specialised intelligence in the lead-up to the murder via alleged extensive tracking of Kinnear's location by "pinging" his phone, and also allegedly tracking Kinnear's wife Nicolette. He also allegedly sourced private details including photo verification on both via a credit record bureau. The pings stopped not long after Kinnear was found dead in the front seat of his car. Even his official police phone had been pinged.
Cellphone service companies MTN and Vodacom terminated this service when the pinging came to light. It was a location-based service they had offered commercial entities.
Kilian is also a co-accused of the attempted murder of lawyer William Booth at a shooting at Booth's home in Cape Town in April, also allegedly by tracking of Booth and Booth's wife.
In that case his co-accused are allegedly Terrible Westsiders gangsters who operate in Woodstock, and so he also faces charges of being involved in gang activity for that case.
The murder of Kinnear opened a can of worms at the police, with an investigation into allegations that a warning that Kinnear's life was in danger was not acted on.
Part of Kinnear's caseload included an investigation that led to the arrest of a number of high ranking police officers regarding firearm licences and clearance certificates.
Cape Town businessman Nafiz Modack is among those facing charges in the Gauteng-based case.
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