By Libuseng Nyaka
BLOEMFONTEIN – Four of seven members of a syndicate that kidnapped, extorted money and then murdered four fellow Pakistani will spend the rest of their lives in prison.
High Court judge John Rampai on Saturday, August 19 ordered the murderous group to be locked up for stretches for the heinous crimes committed on fellow nationals.
The four – Shahid Ibrahim Saeed, 41,Saliem Queveshi 53,Mohammed Elaz, 39, Farhan Ullah, 31 were found guilty of murdering Shabodiem Hussein, 30, Saleem Majid, 30, Amanullah Nusrulam, 26, and Malik Awan Yasser, 45, and Zia Kahn, who was based in Maseru, Lesotho.
The bodies of four of the victims were found buried in the same grave in Clocolan.
The court concluded that Zia Kahn was lured from his home in Maseru and driven across the border into South Africa in his corsa bakkie.
He was tortured and later killed after refusing to pay the kidnappers R2 million to secure his release, the court concluded.
Agreed facts are that Saeed was requested to take him to Nelspruit in his car. Instead of going to Nelspruit, Saeed ordered Anwar to go to Baberton before going to Clocolan where he was detained for 13 days.
Saeed, the court concluded, told his alleged victims that he was stitching together a diamond deal in Clocolan when they were actually being driven into a trap.
The other three culprits in this case are Ali Mamo Mahanza, 34, who was sentenced to ten years for conspiracy and being part of the gang.
He was acquitted on murder charges, extortion and assault. Ali Tanveer, 27, got a seven-year jail term while Ejaz Mohammed Ahmed, 39, and Shabbir Ghullam, 39, were sentenced to 15 years each.
The seven attempted to extort various sums of money ranging from R150, 000 to R2 million from the victims’ families in a killing spree that stretched from November 2007 to March 2008.
The victims were snatched from their homes in Johannesburg and Bloemfontein and transported to the remote settlement of Clocolan in Free State where they were held captive while negotiations for the drop off of the money were being conducted.
The Lashpal syndicate was initially headed by one Ejas Soda Bazra who has since left the country.
Bazra instructed the gang to kill four of the victims for murdering his friend.
The gangsters were facing four murder charges, three counts of kidnapping, three for robbery with aggravated circumstances, assault, extortion and attempted extortion committed between May 2007 to April 2008 in Baberton, Ficksburg , Johannesburg, Clocolan and Bloemfontein.
After Bazra’s departure, Saeed took over leadership of the group and hatched the plan to kidnap the five men and extort money from their families.