Panayiotou witness details ‘torture’ by cops

Section 204 witness Luthando Siyoni gave dramatic evidence about being tied, dragged, burnt and stomped on by police.

Port Elizabeth – A dramatic and detailed description of torture at the time of his arrest, the inability to breath while being burnt, his hands tied behind his back with a “rope” while violently being pulled, pushed and stood on by cops, was just part of the narrative Christopher Panayiotou’s bouncer spun to the Port Elizabeth High Court on Monday.

Midway through his evidence, Section 204 witness Luthando Siyoni dropped his head and asked to be given a breather as he was “emotional” recalling how police forced him to “say what they wanted him to say” that he was asked to enlist Sizwe Vumazonke, who is now deceased, to kill school teacher Jayde Panayiotou.

During a brief adjournment upon Siyoni claiming his emotions were getting the better of him, the bouncer did not leave the court room but rather continued to sit in the witness box, spoke to his lawyer and chewed gum while waiting for court to reconvene.

The alleged middleman testified for a second day in the sixth week of the ongoing murder trial involving his former boss and two co-accused Sinethemba Nemembe and Zolani Sibeko.

Siyoni was arrested just a week after Jayde’s killing during April last year.

Siyoni painted a picture of cops coming in and out of an office while he was taken in for questioning and simultaneously “tortured” by at least five police officers. The incident apparently occurred after Siyoni was fetched by cops at Panayiotou’s Infinity nightclub and was taken to Uitenhage police station.

“They came in one-by-one, said I must not waste time they are in a hurry. They said to me [I was] involved in organising someone to kill Jayde. One pulled me by the waist, others took out their guns and cartridges and said I’m fooling them but I was not asked one question. I told them what I knew but they said I was not telling the truth they were torturing me,” Siyoni told the court.

Prosecutor Marius Stander asked: “Did you try to give an explanation?”

Siyoni responded by saying that his explanation “wasn’t enough” as cops told him they had an “informer” who said that Panayiotou asked Siyoni to arrange a killer for his wife.

“The one dragged me by my waist and belt to the desk. They took off my handcuffs. He tied me up with what appeared to be a rope behind my back, this was done against my will and they were applying violence. The other one pushed me down, he said I wont be allowed to say anything further unless I say what they want,” he said.

Siyoni claimed he was with his stomach to the floor when police assaulted him with a “tube”, “burnt his neck” and hit his head to the floor.

Siyoni then claimed police threatened that he was “going to shit” and they would “dump [him] into a dam” if the bouncer did not concede to the informer’s version.

“Another cop was jumping up and down on my back, another cop was assaulting me and the spray gun caused me inability to breath,” he claimed.

The bouncer then claimed that police tore his pants, hit him in the face with a spray gun while he bled profusely. He said an officer wiped the blood off his face while he continued to bleed.

“I didn’t know where the blood was coming from,” he said.

“I ended up repeating what police said, they let go of me and said that if I had cooperated initially this wouldn’t of happened.”

Siyoni said that he was then taken to Kabega Park police station, he claimed that another officer never explained his rights and he was just “told to sign” a document which outlined his rights.

The trial continues on Tuesday.

African News Agency