Six men appeared in the Pietermaritzburg Magistrate’s Court yesterday for the second time for the kidnapping of a teenager from Pietermaritzburg in KZN.

The gallery of the court was cleared as the six men appeared for their involvement in the kidnapping of Abdul Mateen Khalid, with a host of news outlets waiting to broadcast the results of the appearances to the public.

Four of the men, Omar Riaz, Mohamed Faisal, Rana Yaseen, and Nayeed Khan, who are Pakistani nationals, appeared in court last week, but the case was remanded due to the lack of an available Urdu interpreter to provide translation for the accused.

Three of the four men live in Pietermaritzburg, while Yaseen lives in Umzinto, where Abdul was found after intense police and security investigations resulted in his rescue.

Case remanded

The case was remanded to June 20 due to the lack of an available Urdu interpreter.

The interpreter will only be available on June 20, and the magistrate deemed that his hands were tied in the matter.

The two other men, Thembinkosi Hadebe and Thulani Mncwabe, who are charged with kidnapping and attempted extortion, have also had their cases remanded to June 20, which will ensure that all six men appear on the same day.

The men are alleged to have accosted Abdul on Brixham Road at gunpoint on May 24 and attempted to extort R11.5m from his parents.

The teen was found and rescued in Umzinto, in the south of KZN, on June 5 and was swiftly reunited with his family.