Krejcir to seek leave to appeal to SCA

Czech fugitive Radovan Krejcir will seek leave on Friday to appeal the High Court in Johannesburg's dismissal of his appeal against the rejection of his application for bail. Francois Roets, for Krejcir, said his team would file papers on Thursday afternoon to be ready for 11.30am on Friday, when they would seek leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Appeal. 

On Thursday, the court rejected Krejcir's urgent application to overturn Palm Ridge Regional Court magistrate Reginald Dama's decision on December 13 to deny him bail. High Court in Johannesburg Judge Leonie Windell said she was satisfied with Dama's decision. Krejcir, Desai Luphondo, and two members of the Hawks, Warrant Officers Samuel Modise Maropeng and George Jeff Nthoroane, were arrested in November and face charges of kidnapping, assault, and attempted murder.

 In her finding, Windell noted that Krejcir had previously fled countries to evade trial and out of fear that he would be killed. "[Krejcir] faces similar circumstances in South Africa. There have been at least two attempts on his life and two of his associates were killed," she said. 

Krejcir had also expressed the opinion that he would not get a fair trial in South Africa, had said he did not own assets in the country, and that he had numerous business interests in other countries. Windell said Krejcir had, in the past, experienced no difficulty  obtaining false travel documents and hiding from authorities. She said a witness in the case had received death threats and that his dogs had been killed. 

In June, Krejcir and his three co-accused allegedly kidnapped and assaulted a man whose brother, known only as Doctor, disappeared with a 25kg shipment of tik he had been recruited to help smuggle through OR Tambo International Airport. They allegedly kept the man at the Money Point business in Bedfordview, Johannesburg, for four days, and assaulted him.