Cape Town — Former rugby player and murder suspect, Zane Kilian, admitted he pinged the cellphone of former Anti-Gang Unit officer, Charl Kinnear, who was killed in September 2020.
Kilian admitted he was paid to intercept communications and track cellphones of individuals, but did not know the true purpose behind it. Kilian and alleged underworld figure Nafiz Modack are the main suspects in Kinnear’s murder, and were the main suspects in the attempted murder of defence attorney William Booth in Cape Town on 9 April 2020, Daily Maverick reported.
“Kilian’s involvement in the murder of Kinnear and the attempted murder of Booth was that he pinged their phones from the early hours of the day of the incidents and shortly after the shots were fired.” the State said.
Pinging a cellphone means revealing the phone’s location, and Kinnear’s cellphone was pinged over 2 000 times on the day that he died. Modack, Kilian and 13 others collectively face 124 charges against them.
“I was not involved in the offence to murder Kinnear. My only role was to do pinging. I was informed that the reason for the pinging was twofold, being that firstly Modack wanted to avoid Kinnear and other police officers as Modack feared for his life, and secondly to do a vehicle repossession.” Kilian said in his plea explanation.
A man on trial with Nafiz Modack in the Charl Kinnear murder case claims Kinnear and his boss, former Anti-Gang Unit head Andre Lincoln, “staged” a hand grenade attack at Kinnear’s house to later kill Modack for “resisting arrest” over the attack.https://t.co/Fhrd1hSGkv
— News24 🇿🇦 (@News24) March 12, 2024
During the court session, one of the other co-accused – Janick Adonis – submitted a plea explanation that disputed all the state’s evidence. As plea explanations got under way, Adonis shocked the court when he said the grenade attack on Kinnear’s home was fake,
reported.
According to Adonis, he was approached by police to stage a fake attack on Kinnear. Police planned to target Modack and kill him, creating the impression he was resisting arrest.
Adonis said he did not want to do the plan, and was forced to recruit Faeez Smith to throw the grenade. He said it was a fake grenade with no pin, and could not explode. He later said the fake attack did not happen and Smith was arrested.
“The staged attack did not take place. The SAPS did not inform me why the staged attack did not take place and why Smith was arrested early. Even if Smith tried to execute the attack by throwing the hand grenade it would result in a failure due to the harmless hand grenade.” Adonis said.
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Compiled by Matthew Petersen
