O’Sullivan is out for revenge
'I believe I have enough to put them in prison. And I’m not going to stop until I put them there,' the forensic consultant told The Citizen.
Forensic investigator Paul O’Sullivan. Picture: Refilwe Modise.
Case dismissed … removed from the court roll due to lack of evidence … acquitted. These are a few of the reasons given in the nine cases the state had failed in trying to prosecute against forensic consultant Paul O’Sullivan.
And now, O’Sullivan is coming for the state – in particular the national director of public prosecutions, advocate Shaun Abrahams, and the head of the priority crimes litigation unit, Dr Torie Pretorius.
Speaking to The Citizen yesterday, he said: “I believe I have enough to put them in prison. And I’m not going to stop until I put them there.”
In a letter from DJ Eloff, lawyer for O’Sullivan, to his client’s other least favourite person JJ Mlotshwa, a prosecutor at the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), Eloff noted there would shortly be “a substantial damages claim, which will include constitutional damages, as a result of the malicious campaign against him”.
Eloff lists, among others, generals Riah Phiyega, Khomotso Phahlane and Berning Ntlemeza; cousins Edward and Khulubuse Zuma; Dudu Myeni and Lucky Montana (both formerly with parastatals) as being suspects in cases of “widespread, institutionalised fraud, corruption and racketeering involving amounts in excess of R10 billion”.
“Not a single one of the many cases our client has opened, all of which contain prima facie evidence against the suspects, has led to the suspects being held accountable, whilst our client has been repeatedly harassed and intimidated and been subjected to multiple unlawful searches, arrests, and violation of his constitutional rights, over the last three years and four months,” Eloff said.
“Our client will apply for a certificate in terms of section 7(1) of the Criminal Procedures Act, to commence a private prosecution against you, [investigating officer Warrant Officer Kobus] Vlok and others that were involved in the gross abuse of his constitutional rights, whilst your unlawful campaign against our client has continued unabated.”
O’Sullivan plans to kick off his campaign with four dockets he opened in 2015, 2016, and 2017, in which there has been little to no movement and where Vlok and Mlotshwa are accused of multiple counts of unlawful arrest, unlawful detention, torture, extortion, corruption, contravention and defeating the ends of justice, fraud and corruption.
Eloff warned Mlotshwa: “Should you, or anyone else at the NPA, or DPCI [the Hawks], attempt to bring any more fake cases against our client, we will launch fresh urgent applications to stop you in your tracks.”
The unlawful arrest case refers to O’Sullivan’s arrest in 2016, in front of his children, as the family were about to leave for London. O’Sullivan made history by becoming the first person to be arrested for leaving SA as a naturalised citizen under a passport other than a South African one.
– amandaw@citizen.co.za
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