Alleged gang boss Nafiz Modack has denied ownership of cellphones used to track Anti-Gang Unit detective Colonel Charl Kinnear. During cross-examination in Cape Town's High Court, he claimed his phone was manipulated by someone else. The case involves over 100 charges against Modack and 14 others, including Kinnear's murder.
In the High Court in Cape Town, Nafiz Modack, an alleged gang leader, faced intense questioning over cellphones linked to the tracking of Anti-Gang Unit detective Colonel Charl Kinnear. Modack rejected any connection to the devices, insisting that his phone had been tampered with and his Truecaller ID altered by an unknown party.
The proceedings stem from a sprawling case where Modack and 14 co-accused confront more than 100 charges. These include the murder of Kinnear in 2020 and the attempted murder of criminal lawyer Advocate William Booth. Prosecutors presented evidence of 'pings' from the phones, which they say were used to monitor Kinnear before his killing outside his home.
Judge Robert Henney challenged Modack's defense, noting the improbability that a foreign national could access and use his phone to communicate with an associate named Killian for the tracking operation. 'It cannot be that a person who appears to be a foreign national could have got hold of Modack’s phone and communicated with Killian in the pinging of Kinnear,' the judge remarked.
Modack's legal team highlighted what they described as objective evidence supporting the pings, except for the Truecaller element. A quote from the cross-examination captured the exchange: 'That number communicated with Killian... the others you don’t have issue with in order to track Kinnear except the True Caller story... it did not pop up on True Caller randomly, it was planned there on True Caller by Captain Du Plessis.'
The cross-examination is set to resume on Tuesday, as the trial delves deeper into the electronic evidence tying the accused to the crimes.