Senzo Meyiwa trial: Witness adamant that accused was not tortured into confessing
Previous state witnesses had told the court that they saw no injuries on accused number two, Bongani Ntanzi
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Another state witness in the Senzo Meyiwa trial denied that Bongani Ntanzi was assaulted and tortured before allegedly confessing that he was involved in the murder of the footballer on 26 October 2014.
Constable Yul Craig Liesering took the stand at the Pretoria high court on Tuesday as a witness in the continuing “trial within a trial” to determine whether confessions made by Ntanzi and Muzikawukhulelwa Sibiya are admissible.
Previous state witnesses and police officers told the court that Ntanzi was neither beaten nor tortured and that he was eager to confess.
On Tuesday Liesering said he had been part of the team that escorted Ntanzi to the Boksburg magistrate’s court, where he made a confession to magistrate Vivian Cronje.
Defence advocate Thulani Mngomezulu, representing Ntazi and Sibiya, put it to Liesering that his client was assaulted after the meeting with Cronje.
“He [Ntanzi] says he was taken to Germiston next to an industrial area where the assault took place and that is when he was ordered to sign the papers. It is my instruction that you were also present when he was forced to sign the document,” Mngomezulu said.
Liesering said Ntanzi was lying. “There are no papers that were signed in the bushes. He is not telling the truth. He was never taken to Germiston. He was taken straight to Moot police station [in Pretoria] from Boksburg and I was not present when he signed any documents.”
“There’s evidence that you were heavily armed. Were you also in full uniform?” Mngomezulu asked.
Liesering said he and his colleagues each had two firearms and he could not comment on whether they had intimidated Cronje by being armed.
“She just asked us why we were so heavily armed,” Liesering said.
Ntanzi and Sibiya are among the five men accused of killing the Bafana Bafana captain at the home of his girlfriend, Kelly Khumalo, in Vosloorus, Gauteng. They have pleaded not guilty to charges of premeditated murder, attempted murder, armed robbery, illegal possession of a firearm and the illegal possession of ammunition.
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