SAPS Crime Intelligence: frozen in the political winter of Mangaung

The spy wars in the police’s embattled crime intelligence division are at the heart of a relentless struggle for control between political factions, each fighting to get its man into the much sought-after seat of spy master. Not unlike the Apartheid regime’s security branch, crime intelligence is a notoriously powerful instrument for government, as the eyes and ears on not only the criminal activities of mob bosses, but also the politicians and businessmen with whom they are connected. As this silent battle in the murky world of spies plays itself out in the final days on the road to Mangaung, combating crime has taken a back seat, writes DE WET POTGIETER.

The police’s crime intelligence division – in theory the backbone of crime prevention and the effective combating of crime in South Africa – appear to have become so politicised with factional in-fighting that this expert unit have suffered from paralysis since the struggle for the top post as spy master intensified last year.

“The spy bosses at crime intelligence headquarters in Pretoria are sitting on their hands, too afraid to make a wrong move in the run-up to Mangaung, in case it jeopardises their future in the police.”

That’s how well-placed intelligence sources describe the sensitive circumstances surrounding them.

In the latest saga of dirty tricks in Spy versus Spy – which was a closely guarded secret until now – Daily Maverick can reveal that the Toshiba laptop of acting head of crime intelligence, Major-General Chris Ngcobo, mysteriously disappeared from the boot of his car, together with sensitive intelligence documents.

In a handwritten sworn statement, Ngcobo’s official driver, Ernest Masemola, said he stopped on 24 September with a Ford Focus in Esselen Street, in Sunnyside in Pretoria, to pick up photographs from Photo Plus. From there he travelled to the Brooklyn Mall and then drove Ngcobo to Doornpoort in the north of Pretoria.

“I parked the car outside [with] my commanding officer, Major-General Chris Ngcobo, [and we] both got out of the car. We walked together to the boot of the car and when I opened it we discovered his laptop was missing.”

Police spokesperson Brigadier Phuti Setati declined to comment on the incident.

Ngcobo, a former head of Protection and Security Services in the Free State and a former head of VIP Protection, was appointed as acting top police spy by national police commissioner Riah Phiyega “to bring stability” to crime intelligence after the position was vacated following the suspension of controversial former intelligence chief Lieutenant-General Richard Mdluli.

Both local and foreign intelligence sources voiced their concern to Daily Maverick that soon after his appointment, Ngcobo suspended – until after the Mangaung conference is done and dusted – all official authorisation of telephone tapping for agents working on deep cover operations within organised crime syndicates. This ban on surveillance was recently eased somewhat after an investigating advocate from the prosecuting authority intervened.

According to senior colleagues, Ngcobo is sitting with an explosive docket regarding one of his predecessors as acting head of intelligence – and the main rival of Mdluli to this top post, Major-General Mark Hankel – without taking any action. It has been reliably learned that the dossier recommends that action be taken against Hankel regarding the following two issues:

• The leakage of information;
• The illegal interception of telephone conversations of other government departments as well as the use of the Secret Services Account (SSA).

Hankel, the former head of crime intelligence’s operational intelligence analysis section, is a very powerful officer in the division and had always been seen as the main rival of Mdluli for the top post. He was instrumental in drafting the controversial secret report presented to the inspector general of intelligence, Faith Radebe, earlier this year, outlining the allegations of fraud and misappropriation of the slush fund against Mdluli.

The controversy surrounding crime intelligence culminated last year when, with the stroke of a pen, almost the entire top management of the police’s crime intelligence were instructed to vacate their offices and move to other sections in the SAPS. Reacting soon after the purge, police spokesperson Major-General Nonkululeko Mbatha said that “certain interventions have been done directed at the optimal functioning of the environment.” All this was done in the interest of the service, she added.

In total, 11 members of management received their walking letters, and one of them had been suspended while under investigation by the Hawks. They were redeployed to other sections in the SAPS.

“This was not a spur of the moment decision,” a senior police source close to crime intelligence explained soon after the purge. “The investigation into the activities there had been ongoing for quite some time.”

This drastic move by then-acting national police commissioner, Major-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, was a sequel to the crackdown by the Hawks on the controversial division. Mdluli was the first casualty of the purge after the Hawks chief, General Anwar Dramat, received instructions to clean out crime intelligence, starting at the top. Top Cape Town cop, Colonel Piet Viljoen, was brought up to Gauteng as part of the behind-the-scenes investigation.

For some time now, it has been possible to sense from within the ranks of crime intelligence an eerie atmosphere of distrust since Mdluli’s arrest, especially as the police spies started to panic and closed ranks. (Mdluli was recently cleared of the murder charge, but remains on suspension.)

The next to go was the controversial former Gauteng boss, Joey Mabasa, who fell from grace owing to his wife’s links with the Czech fugitive Radovan Krejcir’s wife. Mabasa took a severance package last year and left the police quietly.

In another strange move by the crime intelligence top brass, the police refused to give reasons for the massive destruction of extremely valuable and sensitive documents and surveillance material regarding the activities of international crime syndicates and local drug lords soon after Mdluli was arrested for murder last year.

It is believed that the purge of the police’s spy unit in November last year was partly the result of the bitter internal political struggle which lead to the panicky destruction of vital evidence that pointed to links by top ANC politicians and family members with crime syndicate leaders.

According to intelligence sources, Operations Dante and Snowman were two top secret intelligence-driven investigations into the links of South African crime bosses with, in particular, the dangerous crime syndicates operating from the Balkan countries – with the main focus on Serbia and Montenegro.

“There were at least 30 targets whose telephones were legally tapped in these operations,” sources closely connected to these deep cover operations said.

Some of the key “targets” the agents were eavesdropping on were, among others, the slain gangland boss, Cyril Beeka, the murdered king of sleaze, Lolly Jackson, the Czech fugitive, Radovan Krejcir, one of his Serbian business associates, Veselin “Vesco” Laganin, and convicted drug dealer, Glen Agliotti.

Asked for comment, the then Hawks spokesperson, Colonel Macintosh Polela, said: “We don’t give out information on crime intelligence operations. As such, I’m unable to respond to any of your questions.”

Since Phiyega took over as police commissioner earlier this year, Mkhwanazi was redeployed. Before she took over the reins, he had been rumoured to be the frontrunner for the intelligence post. Mkhwanazi took the decisive decision last year to suspend Mdluli from his post as intelligence boss pending the outcome of the murder trial.

According to well-placed sources, within days of Mdluli’s arrest, Hankel withdrew particular crime intelligence material from the vaults at crime intelligence head office in Pretoria, and the frantic shredding started around the clock, destroying vital evidence regarding international organised crime syndicates. Hankel, who is regarded as “very knowledgeable”, with a lot of sensitive information, including the criminal activities of influential people, declined to comment.

Showing his hand in this relentless battle for the heart of crime intelligence, soon after his arrest, Mdluli handed the so-called Ground Coverage Report to President Jacob Zuma, in which it is alleged that certain high-profile ANC leaders, including Human Settlement Minister Tokyo Sexwale, KwaZulu-Natal Premier Zweli Mkhize and Bheki Cele, plotted to overthrow Zuma. These claims of a conspiracy against Zuma were vehemently denied.

The Hawks, which relied heavily on information from the police’s crime intelligence division for its own investigations, severed all links, with crime intelligence due to the breach in trust; the working relationship soured when the super cops discovered that the phones of Hawks investigators were being illegally tapped by crime intelligence.

Only a few weeks away, the ANC’s Mangaung conference will define the winners and losers, at least for the time being. One question remains difficult to answer, however: will the police crime intelligence unit ever become what it is supposed to be – an elite department whose only true masters are the people of South Africa? DM

Source: Daily Maverick

Intelligence officer fired under cloud of Krejcir links

Senior crime intelligence officer Major General Joey Mabasa, who has been linked to Czech fugitive from justice Radovan Krejcir, has been sacked from the police service with immediate effect.

Hawks spokesperson McIntosh Polela said that Mabasa was discharged under section 35 of the South African Police Service Act "because his services were no longer needed and because it is in the interest of the service to discontinue his job".

According to a police source, Mabasa's contract was terminated last Friday. The decision to sack him was made, the source said, after "publicity around Mabasa made it difficult for him to stay with the service". The source said that Mabasa would receive "some sort of a payout".

Mabasa was transferred last year from his position as head of crime intelligence for Gauteng back to head office in Pretoria, after questions were raised about his relationship with Krejcir. Krejcir's wife, Katarina, and Mabasa's wife, Dorcas, started a company together in 2009 and became co-directors of that company, called Radlochron. At the time, Mabasa claimed that he and his wife were separated, a claim not supported by circumstantial evidence. Krejcir said that the link with Mabasa's wife was innocent and the company never traded.

Krejcir also said that he was introduced to Mabasa through his attorney, Ian Small-Smith, when he (Krejcir) feared being kidnapped. When the Mail & Guardian exposed the business relationship between the wives of Krejcir and Mabasa last year, Krejcir's former business associate, Juan Meyer, accused Mabasa of holding meetings with the Czech at the Michelangelo Hotel in Sandton. The two men denied this. Meyer has alleged that he was present on two occasions when Mabasa was given bags that Meyer believed contained cash.

Krejcir also denied this last year and claimed that Meyer had not attended any meetings with Mabasa. After Mabasa's transfer to head office, more allegations surfaced, including allegations that crime intelligence was engaged in extensive phone tapping of Hawks members and others involved in the Krejcir investigation.

Questions were raised about who motivated this surveillance, who approved it and whether the information was passed on to Krejcir. It is alleged that in at least one case intercepted conversations found their way to targets of the Hawks' investigation, which includes not only Krejcir but a number of his associates. Mabasa's phone was off when the M&G tried to contact him.

Meanwhile, the M&G understands that crime intelligence boss Lieutenant General Richard Mdluli, who was suspended earlier this year after he was arrested for murder, has refused an offer similar to Mabasa's to leave.

Mdluli was allegedly given a week to explain to national police commissioner General Bheki Cele why he should not be fired.

Source: Mail & Guardian

Jailed Radovan Krejcir reaches a deal with the Hawks

Radovan Krejcir’s lawyers on Friday told Eyewitness News he handed himself over to police overnight after reaching a private agreement with Hawks boss Anwar Dramat.

Krejcir is now behind bars in a secret location. He had been on the run since Tuesday night when a Hawks raid found a hit list containing the name of Cyril Beeka, who was killed on Monday in Cape Town. The list also included security consultant Paul O’Sullivan, a doctor and state prosecutor.

One of Krejcir’s attorney’s Eddie Claasen said everything went according to plan when Krejcir presented himself to police. “What was intended was that Mr. Krejcir can be handed over to the police and avoid the media frenzy that previously took place at the raided Mr. Krejcir’s home,” he said.

Meanwhile, O’Sullivan, who has been investigating Krejcir, said his detention does not mean people on the Czech fugitive’s hit list are now safe. He said those on the list should still take precautions, “This is a man who was able to arrange murders in the Czech Republic while he was in prison. He was arranging murders in the Czech Republic while he was in the Seychelles.”

The Hawks’ McIntosh Polela said Krejcir is now in a secret location, “He was detained in the early hours of the morning and we are still making provisions for when he is likely to appear in court.” Krejcir had been due to hand himself over on Thursday morning.

Source: Eye Witness News

Uwe Gemballa reportedly found murdered in South Africa

News is coming in that the body of Uwe Gemballa has been found in South Africa. Gemballa was the former CEO of the Porsche tuning company that bears his name. As we reported earlier this year, Mr. Gemballa went missing in February after arriving in South Africa for a business trip.

The details that poured in after the reported disappearance of Gemballa caused great speculation that shady business deals were afoot. He was reportedly having trouble paying its employees, his wife was given power of attorney and registered the company for bankruptcy and he had started a second company with his 79 year-old mother listed as the sole stockholder.

To further muddy the waters, it's being reported that Uwe Gemballa was turning towards Czech fugitive and South African organized crime boss, Radovan Krejcir. A former business partner of Krejcirs by the name of Juan Meyer has provided the local police with a sworn statement, saying that the Porsche tuner and the mobster were working on a business arrangement. Gemballa was slow in getting money to Krejcir and it may be what cost him his life.

It's a sad, speculative end for a once famed tuner of German sports cars. The Gemballa company has moved on since Uwe's disappearance but these new stories can't help it as remaining employees attempt to revive the company.

Source: Autoblog

Krejcir scoffs at 'Mafia boss' claims

Johannesburg - Fugitive Czech billionaire Radovan Krejcir scoffs at suggestions that he is “some big Mafia boss from the Eastern Bloc” and says he has “absolutely nothing to hide”. Breaking his silence ahead of a renewed bid by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to have him extradited to the Czech Republic, Krejcir told Rapport he was the victim of “fabricated stories” and a “dirty plan” concocted to “get me deported from this country, either legally or illegally”. He says that his record in the Czech Republic is “clean” and claims the country's Constitutional Court has overturned a prison sentenced imposed on him. Despite this, the Czech authorities still want him extradited.

Krejcir has accused “elements” in the NPA and police, Czech intelligence operatives and prominent whistleblower Paul O'Sullivan – who describes Krejcir as the head of an “evil trans-national crime syndicate” that “wants to control the underworld in South Africa” - of conspiring against him. He claims O'Sullivan is in the pay of the Czech intelligence services and “stands to benefit by $500 000” if Krejcir is successfully extradited. O'Sullivan on Saturday laughed off the claim.

Krejcir - who was sentenced in absentia in the Czech Republic to six-and-a-half years imprisonment for tax fraud and reportedly investigated on charges of conspiracy to murder, counterfeiting, extortion and abduction – is a flamboyant man, given to ostentatious displays of wealth and power. In recent weeks his links to a coterie of controversial South African businessmen and underworld figures has been in the spotlight.

He arrived in South Africa in 2007 and was arrested at OR Tambo international airport on an Interpol “red notice” while travelling with a Seychelles passport, issued in the name Egbert Jules Savy. An application for his extradition was unsuccessful. Krejcir, who has applied for political asylum, has since ensconced himself in South Africa. He holds court at the Harbour Fish Market restaurant in the Bedford Centre, usually with one of his two Porsches, a Lamborghini Murcielago, a Ferrari Spider or a Mercedes parked in a private, roped-off bay near the front door. He has free reign of the restaurant.

One corner of the outside patio is shielded with bullet-proof glass, installed at Krejcir's expense after he discovered that a “Russian hit team” had been sent to South Africa by the Czech government to snatch or kill him and planned to position snipers in a block of flats across the road from the restaurant. Until his murder in May this year, Teazers strip club boss Lolly Jackson – along with George Smith, the man who would be accused of his murder, were Krejcir's frequent companions at the restaurant.

Krejcir's R20m Bedfordview home – which he shares with his wife Katerina Krejcirova, a 9-month-old baby boy and their teenage son, is a four storey mansion replete with a steel and glass lift, aquarium and an infinity pool looking out over the Johannesburg skyline. They also own a holiday home on the Vaal Dam. Once a week he rents Kyalami racetrack so that he and his son can race superbikes and sportscars. “Lolly and I were very good friends because of my sickness with cars. I love cars. He loved cars. Every week we rented Kyalami for two hours to have some adrenaline because I cannot travel, I cannot do fuck-all. I really love these toys.”

Krejcir says he has no desire to return to the Czech Republic. “I believe this is the best country in the world,” he said this week. “I don't want to go to the Czech Republic because I'll never have the chance of a fair trial and they will kill me.” There, 5km from the capital, Prague, Krejcir once lived on a 2 000m² estate in a villa estimated to have cost R151m. It boasted a squash court, basketball court, indoor and outdoor swimming pools and a giant aquarium containing reef sharks, a 1.7m moray eel and “other dangerous fishes”. There was also an enclosure on the property for a pet tiger.

Czech police say the house contained a secret strongroom packed with weapons, jewellery, share certificates and classified police documents. Krejcir had amassed a fortune by the time he was 30, making most it during the wave of state industry privatisation that followed the 1989 “Velvet Revolution” which saw the overthrow of the authoritarian communist government.

In June 2005, balaclava-clad security police and state prosecutors swooped on Krejcir's home. Press reports suggest that Krejcir escaped through a bathroom window. According to press reports, he was supposedly spotted three days later in neighbouring Slovakia at a petrol station filling up the tank of a Lamborghini. He says he was allowed to leave by a state prosecutor. “In my bathroom there was no window. I don't know how you could escape from 20 guys with machine guns and masks on their faces.”

In the wake of his disappearance, police said they had found billions of crowns in fake currency at a factory owned by Krejcir. Mixed into the boxes of cash was 8 million Czech crowns (about R3m) of genuine currency. Krejcir says the boxes of cash were an elaborate gift for a close friend who was turning 40. “We as rich people after the revolution gave some presents like this. The top and bottom of the boxes was real money and the middle was fake and inside it would say: 'Happy birthday'” “So you give a present that looks like it is billions of crowns but in reality it is only 8 million crowns.”

Krejcir next turned up in the Seychelles where he gave financial support to the ruling elite. As a result, he says, “they offered me and my family a new identity”. “I submitted an application and received from Home Affairs passports under the name Egbert Jules Savy for me, Sandra Savy for my wife and Greg Savy for my son. I came to South Africa believing my passport was a genuine one.” The Seychelles authorities later claimed the passports were fake. But Krejcir says “it is not important if the passport is false or not because if you are successful in getting political asylum, it doesn't matter how you ended up in the this country because you tried to save your life.”

Krejcir argues that he is a Seychelles citizen and that his Czech citizenship lapsed when he accepted a new passport. In the Seychelles, to stave off boredom, he wrote a book titled: Radovan Krejcir - Revealed. “It was so boring there, like being a prisoner in paradise,” he said. “At least I could go diving and fishing...” In the book he claimed he had advanced about R20m for the 2002 election campaign of Czech Social Democratic candidate Stanislav Gross and in exchange had received a promissory note which stipulated that if the election bid was successful, Krejcir would be given control of the State oil company, Cepro. Gross later did an about turn and Krejcir was arrested on a “trumped-up charge of fraud”. That same year, Krejcir's father was kidnapped. He was never seen again. Krejcir alleges his father was killed by Czech state agents who believed he had the promissory note in his possession. He believes his father's body was dissolved in a vat of acid.

In early 2006, while Krejcir sunned himself on the Seychelles beaches, Czech newspapers linked him to the assassination of Frantisek Mrazek, the so-called “Godfather” of organised crime in the country. Mrazek was shot by a sniper outside the building that housed his offices. Krejcir laughs when asked if he had anything to do with the killing. “Yes, I shot one bullet from the Seychelles and the bullet travelled all the way direct to his heart. I'm very good. “What must I say my man? I saw this guy twice in my life. We never had a fight. It is the same situation as my father. They killed him and afterwards said it was my criminals. All the time it was the top government and secret service guys.”

“They say he (Mrazek) was the boss of the Mafia. Apparently, if you believe them, there are Mafia bosses all over the place. If you know any more people from the Czech republic, you probably know more bosses. I must be the worst one because I am wanted for murders and all this.”

Krejcir – who suggests his detractors have found him guilty by association – readily admits that he befriended or became acquainted with several of South Africa's most controversial businessmen and notorious underworld figures. Among them were Jackson, Smith, security company kingpin Cyril Beeka, Brett Kebble murder accused and convicted druglord Glen Agliotti, banker and self-confessed money launderer Alekos Panayi and Gauteng police crime intelligence head, Commissioner Joey Mabasa. “So what?” he asked. “People find me because they believe I've got money, that I'm an opportunity for them, that I can do some business with them. So the people are coming, especially to this restaurant, like a bee on honey.” He said he had a wide network of contacts.

Krejcir said he befriended Jackson's alleged killer, George Smith, in April 2007 while he was awaiting his extradition hearing. The two shared a cell at Kempton Park police station and after their release, Smith helped him “get connected” introduced him to “most of the people” he knows today. “I don't need anybody. I've got my money clean overseas. I've never made one rand in this country from any business. I'm enjoying my life. I bought property, assets, cars. I'm spending money which I brought in officially through the reserve banks of the Czech Republic and South Africa.”

Krejcir believes it will be to his advantage if the State wins their application tomorrow (Monday) for a review of the Kempton Park Magistrate's Court decision that has allowed him to remain in the country. If they do succeed, the State will proceed with a new extradition application. “If they start it again, it will take another four years. Even if they decide to extradite me, they cannot do so until the political asylum case is finished.”

Source: News 24

Jackson's underworld links surface

Police had not ruled out the possibility that the person who killed Lolly Jackson might have left the country, as their investigations continued on Friday. "We are considering all possibilities," said spokesperson Colonel Eugene Opperman.

The Jeep Cherokee that Jackson arrived in at the Kempton Park house on Monday, and which subsequently disappeared, had been found, he said. Police received a call on Monday night from a man saying Jackson had been shot and that he wanted to hand himself in. But, when they arrived at the rendezvous point, the man was not there. Opperman confirmed they want to speak to George Smith - a former police informer believed to be a Cypriot - about the murder. "Somebody somewhere must be hiding him," he said.

A photograph of Smith was splashed across newspapers on Thursday as police released titbits of information on the case to the media. His name was not on the Interpol wanted list by Friday morning.

Jackson, who owned a chain of strip clubs, was murdered in Kempton Park on Monday night. Theories on the motive for the murder read like plots in a crime novel, with money laundering, a debt dispute and a glitch during the purchase of a performance car put forward by observers. Google searches on some of the people quoted on Jackson's death in the various articles brought up stories of protection racketeers, "security specialists", drug gangs and other underworld activities.

Earlier this week police interviewed Czech Republic citizen Radovan Krejcir for over an hour. His lawyer Ian Small-Smith said the investigators were trying to "unravel the matter" with the help of Krejcir, who is on the run from Czech authorities for tax fraud after being sentenced in absentia to six years in prison. He was on the Interpol wanted list when he was arrested entering South Africa, and is in the process of challenging an extradition attempt by the Czech Republic. Small-Smith said once someone was caught for Jackson's murder, Krejcir would co-operate fully with a trial and denied a report that this may be in exchange for a deal that the extradition matter be dropped.

The web of intrigue even included a cross reference to the Brett Kebble murder, with an allegation by the partner of a former stripper that a Ducati motorbike Jackson owned was found at the crime scene. Small-Smith had represented Clinton Nassif, who has made a deal with the State in the case of the murder of Kebble in 2005. The accused, Glenn Agliotti, was convicted of drug trafficking and was now the main witness in the corruption trial of former police commissioner Jackie Selebi.

Small-Smith had also represented State prosecutor Gerrie Nel, when he was briefly detained by police at one stage on the Selebi investigation. Nel, who is currently prosecutor in Selebi's trial, was never charged and was released. He has now been removed from the Kebble case.

Missing German businessman Uwe Gemballa's name also popped up in reports, with Krejcir saying he was supposed to have put up the money for a Porsche conversion franchise that Gemballa wanted to set up in South Africa. Gemballa disappeared after arriving at OR Tambo International Airport in February, and his company was put into provisional liquidation days after.

The Star on Friday quoted a man called Cyril Beeka as saying he had seen Smith on the night Jackson was murdered. A Google search of Beeka brings up stories on the Cape Town "escort agency" scene, his stint as an informer for the ANC's armed wing Umkhonto weSizwe and a brouhaha over him accompanying intelligence boss Mo Shaik to the 2007 ANC elective conference in Polokwane as a minder.

Beeka had at one time briefly employed Ukrainian Yuri Ulianitski in his security business, but Ulianitski then left to start his own business. Ulianitski was murdered along with his small daughter in 2007 as he faced charges of conspiring to kidnap and for possession of illegal firearms and drugs. Jackson was to have attended court this week in connection with extortion allegations relating to a dispute over a former stripper who fell in love and left his company but then her boyfriend allegedly had to pay Jackson money. But, the spokesperson for a bank that, according to one "this is the true story" whisper, may have fired a manager in connection with the Jackson money laundering theory said: "It could have been anybody. It could have been your gardener. It could have been my gardener." "I gave a waiter who was hitchhiking a lift the other day and next thing I saw his picture in the papers for murder. The man was sitting right next to me in my car. You just never know."

Source: News 24

Police Interview Radovan Krejcir In Lolly Jackson Murder

Attorney Ian Small Smith, who acts for Radovan Krejcir a Czech businessman, has confirmed that his client spent an hour with police today during which he gave the authorities his full assistance and cooperation.

Krejcir is believed to be associated with George Smith - the alias used by a Cypriot national - who is wanted by the police pursuant to the murder of Teazer's boss Lolly Jackson in Kempton Park on Monday night.

A bank manager who will remain unnamed here deposed to an affidavit in which he says that he was introduced to Krejcir by George Smith “whom he knew as a member of the Greek Cypriot community“ during 2007.

As a result thereof he alleges that he assisted Jackson and Krejcir in certain illegal money transactions. In addition he alledges that he was doing major money laundering on behalf of Jackson.

Source: Newstime

South African court rules against extraditing Radovan Krejčíř

One of the country’s most notorious fugitives, billionaire Radovan Krejčíř, is another step closer to escaping Czech justice forever. Almost a year after he was arrested in South Africa, a Johannesburg court on Friday ruled against his extradition to the Czech Republic. The court said that the murder plot and three-billion-crown tax fraud he was accused of are not considered crimes in South Africa.

The news from Johannesburg was a bad blow for the Czech Republic where Krejčíř has already been sentenced in absentia to six and a half years for tax fraud and is charged with a variety of other crimes including conspiracy to murder, counterfeiting, extortion and abduction. Although the prosecutor in the case Deon Barnard is mulling over whether to file an appeal, saying he needs more time to study the court's justification of its decision, the Czech Justice Ministry has not given up on the case. On Friday the ministry’s spokeswoman Zuzana Kuncová read out a brief statement to the press: “The Czech Republic has cooperated fully with the South African authorities in this extradition request and we are prepared to continue doing so in the future. Friday’s ruling is that of an independent court in a sovereign state and the ministry is not in a position to pass judgment on it.”

Radovan Krejčíř has thumbed his nose at the Czech authorities for years. He first gained notoriety by giving the police the slip while they were raiding his luxury villa in Prague and escaping to the Seychelles where he and his family lived for two years – beyond the reach of Czech justice. The Interior Ministry vowed to catch up with him and when in April of last year he was apprehended at Johannesburg airport in South Africa Czech Interior Minister Ivan Langer said this was a message to all criminals that one could not escape justice forever. On Friday a triumphant Radovan Krejčíř parodied the minister’s words from Johannesburg: “I have two messages for my countrymen. First good news for all the decent people like myself – namely that justice has been done. And I have bad news for all the corrupt politicians back home, whom I warn that the truth will eventually come out and every one of them will be held accountable.”

Krejčíř’s latest triumph in his cat and mouse game with the Czech authorities is a major embarrassment, especially since the Czech side made some procedural mistakes which slowed down the Johannesburg court case, while Krejčíř never put a foot wrong. He had clearly studied the South African legal system in great detail and has asked for political asylum in the country. A decision on that request may take years and Krejčíř cannot be extradited before it is reached. If the court decides that it has reason to do so, which at present seems more unlikely than ever.

Source: Radio Praha

Czech fugitive nabbed at OR Tambo Airport

When millionaire Radovan Krejcir slipped out the back door of his luxury villa near Prague in the Czech Republic, and fled to the Seychelles, a police chief was fired for letting the wanted man escape.

Over the next two years, Czech authorities began losing hope of getting their suspect back as the 38-year-old Krejcir and his family secured new citizenship and settled down in the island paradise.

But in a surprise twist the alleged criminal boss - wanted for fraud and planning a murder - was arrested at OR Tambo International Airport on Saturday.

Krejcir, who appeared at the Kempton Park magistrate's court on Monday, had entered the country on a fake passport, national police spokesperson Director Sally de Beer said. He travelled under the name Egbert Jules Savy and was flying from Madagascar, members of the Crime Intelligence Unit reported. He was nabbed at 5.15pm as he got off the plane. 

Krejcir has been on the run since 2005 and has reportedly made shocking claims of giving bribes to his country's government officials. From his hideout in the Seychelles, Krejcir said a book he was writing would prove to be "the next Watergate scandal" for the Czech government. He has maintained his innocence and benefited from the fact that no extradition agreement exists between the Czech Republic and the Seychelles. "It is believed he intended to settle in South Africa," De Beer said on Monday night. "He is wanted by the Czech Republic on charges of fraud involving hundreds of millions of euros, as well as for conspiracy to commit murder."

Krejcir is suspected of orchestrating a complex fraud scheme in 2004 and 2005. During his court appearance on Monday, Krejcir's identity was confirmed and his case postponed to May 2. He will remain in custody until then.

De Beer said a warrant of arrest would now have to be sent from the Czech Republic, after which the extradition process would start. Interpol had issued a red notice - an international warrant of arrest "with a view to extradition" - for Krejcir, but it seems unlikely that he will be boarding a plane soon.

Extraditions out of South Africa have been put on hold pending the outcome of an alleged stem cell fraud couple's challenge to the extradition agreement between South Africa and the US. If accused stem cell fraudsters Stephen van Rooyen and Laura Brown succeed in their Pretoria High Court bid, which is due to continue on Thursday, every single extradition treaty concluded by South Africa since 1996 would be rendered invalid. 

Source: IoL

Fugitive billionaire Radovan Krejcir launches counterattack from the Seychelles

The case of the fugitive Czech billionaire Radovan Krejcir has taken a new twist. From his hideout in the Seychelles the man whom the police claim was the ringleader of a dangerous gang has taken a swipe at the ruling Social Democrats, claiming that he loaned the party 60 million crowns back in 2002 in return for special favours.

Conspiracy to murder, money forgery, tax evasion, extortion, abduction - those are just some of the crimes that Radovan Krejcir is wanted for in the Czech Republic. In recent days the Czech police arrested five people who are believed to be his closest accomplices in a dangerous crime-ring which Krejcir allegedly headed or still heads. The head of a special police squad for fighting corruption and economic crime Jiri Novak said the police had plenty of evidence to nail all members of the gang. "We believe that we got all the big fish here. My team has been working on this case since last November - and the information and documents we have collected look pretty convincing. They convinced us and we hope they'll convince the state attorney."

Safe from his hideout in the Seychelles with his family around him and a Seychelles passport in his pocket, Radovan Krejcir dropped his bombshell-accusing the ruling Social Democratic Party of having accepted a 60 million crown bribe from him back in 2002 - officially a loan, but one that was never meant to be repaid in return for special favours. Speaking to reporters, Krejcir said he intended to write a book that would give the Czech Republic its own Watergate scandal and he hinted that the Czech authorities knew all along that he would never be extradited from the Seychelles. "I am certain that the present political leadership and the police knew I was beyond their reach the minute they heard I was in the Seychelles. All their media statements about trying to get me extradited were just a smoke screen for the public. I consider myself innocent."

Here in Prague Krejcir's accusations elicited an angry response from finance minister Bohuslav Sobotka who said the fugitive billionaire was telling absurd lies in order to get his revenge on the ruling Social Democrats for breaking up his crime ring and continuing in their efforts to see him brought to justice here in the Czech Republic.

If Radovan Krejcir really wanted to get revenge he timed his story well. It hit the headlines less than 48 hours after a Transparency International report suggested that the Czech Republic was the third most corrupt state in the EU. It is not clear how the opposition will treat the accusations but, even if they don't add fuel to the fire, the fact that the claims have been splashed across today's front pages will not help the Social Democrat's image ahead of next years general elections.

Source: Radio Prague