Charges against 61 people accused of instigating July unrest being finalized
Charges against the 61 people accused of instigating last year’s July unrest are being finalized.
All of the accused are currently charged with conspiracy to commit violence, incitement to commit public violence, and incitement to commit arson.
The group made a second appearance together in the Durban Magistrates Court on Wednesday.
The suspects in this matter are linked with a WhatsApp group chat named Free Zuma Coordinators – the State alleges that in this group there were messages to incite and instigate others to commit violence.
The State also believes this had a hand in the widespread looting which rocked the country in July last year.
State prosecutor Shika Siverpersadh: “The downloading of the devices have been conducted, your worship, which is the majority of the further investigations required in this matter. However, your worship, we now need to analyze these devices, which is going to be a lengthy process.”
She said that once this process was done and their investigations finalized, the State would bring new charges.
“The State intends on applying to the national director of public prosecutions to change the charge sheets so that we receive authority to charge the accused persons in terms of the Protections of Constitutional Democracy Against Terrorist and Related Activities Act.”
The State said that the new charges would be vastly different from what the group was currently facing.
However, the defence lawyers opposed this and said that their clients were before the court with no valid charges.
-EWN
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