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Pretoria — Czech fugitive Radovan Krejcir has been sentenced to 35 years in jail by the High Court in Johannesburg yesterday.
Sentencing proceedings were stalled on Monday after a bomb threat was called in to the court building on Monday afternoon, in a day where the Krejcir represented himself in court.
Yesterday, Johannesburg High Court Judge Colin Lamont rejected all three applications made by the Czech fugitive.
The first was to have the shackles on his hands and feet removed. Krejcir’s second application was for Lamont to hand down an order that he be allowed to call witnesses to testify in mitigation of his sentencing.
His third application was that a psychiatrist, psychologist and criminologist testify about his mental, physical and emotional state.
“I applied countless times to not be in solitary confinement, especially as a depression patient,” he had said.
Lamont told him to “do his best” to try and get the witnesses, but dismissed all three applications.
On August 24 2015, Krejcir was convicted of attempted murder, kidnapping and dealing in drugs.
The matter related to the kidnapping and torture of Bheki Lukhele, whose brother, Doctor, had allegedly disappeared with 25kg of tik. He has attempted multiple prison escape attempts since his arrest.
The Star newspaper last week reported on an alleged plot by Krejcir to kill high court Judge Colin Lamont.
The paper said Krejcir had apparently hired a European hitman who had allegedly tried to visit Krejcir in Kokstad C-Max in December to hatch a plan for the assassinations, but officials prevented this.
“A top cop had rushed to the Kokstad maximum security facility the following day and demanded all the video footage showing the faces of visitors, claiming he was going to investigate the matter,” The Star reported.
On Thursday, Hawks national spokesperson Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi told News24 the hawks were one step ahead of Krejcir.
“We are not aware of the alleged plot by Krejcir, but we do take these allegations seriously and we will be investigating. We have remained a step ahead in this investigation,” he said responding to the report in The Star. — News24.
derick.khumalo