The State, led by Gauteng deputy director of public prosecutions advocate Dan Dakana, argued the hitmen received a call from Agliotti, telling them not to go ahead with the shooting initially because of the payment due from Kebble for his "assisted suicide".
"… the 'call off the boys' call (from Agliotti) coincidentally came at the time when there were negotiations of some sort with regard to payments between Brett and the accused (Agliotti)," the heads read. Dakana's team based this argument on testimony from restaurant owner Alexis Christopher, Kebble's butler Andrew Minnaar and former Kebble security boss Clinton Nassif's business partner, Steven Saunders.
"This is supported by Alexis's version that on the evening of September 26 2005 the accused had a restless dinner and later informed Alexis that the calls were between him (Agliotti) and the deceased and that the deceased owed him some money. "This could not have been business money because it is evident from the testimony of both Minnaar and Saunders that it is the accused who owed the deceased money.
"It is therefore respectfully submitted that this money was... for the payment of the shooting of the deceased," the State contends. Jumbling things together
Hodes accused the State of "jumbling things together" to reach the conclusion that Agliotti was involved in securing payment for the Kebble killing.
"This conclusion cannot be drawn my lord. I don't know how they (the State) do these quantum leaps from one to the other. He argued the State ought to have come to court with its "hands clean". Instead the case was characterised by "missing statements" and contradictions between testimony in court and written statements.
The State's key witness, Nassif, made his final statement in March 2010. "It takes four years to compile a supplementary statement to give more detail? It's unheard of my lord," Hodes said. It was "sinister" that the State, in its heads of argument opposing the discharge application, did not once make reference to the court record. He said the record made "interesting reading" as it showed Nassif was a "massive liar". "It's clear that every witness's testimony is tainted."
Unfair trial
Hodes argued the witness testimony showed not an "iota of evidence" against Agliotti had been proven. "The evidence of Nassif, (Nigel) McGurk and (Alexi) Christopher (is) to be disregarded as being... contradicted by other objective facts such as telephone records, and simply is not credible.
"The organs of the State that withheld statements and documentation until just before the commencement of the trial and during the proceedings as well as to date, has resulted in an abuse of the fundamental right of the accused, further resulting in an unfair trial," Hodes said. Agliotti is facing four charges – two of conspiracy to commit murder, one count of attempted murder and another of murder.
The murder charge relates to the 2005 Kebble shooting in Melrose, north of Johannesburg. One conspiracy charge relates to the plot to kill Allan Gray auditor Stephen Mildenhall, Jean Daniel Nortier, Dr Mark Bristow and Mark Wellesley Woods. The other is for planning to kill Kebble.
The attempted murder charge relates to the shooting of Mildenhall in Cape Town in August 2005. Judge Frans Kgomo postponed the matter to Thursday.
http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Agliotti-lawyer-State-ignored-evidence-20101117