Families of the accused demonstrating outside court
Families of the Phoenix accused are baffled and frustrated following two alleged witnesses who visited their home on various occasions stating that they were threatened by investigative officers to be a part of the ‘Phoenix Massacre case’.
Speaking to The Phoenix Tabloid, Yunus Ismail, family member of two of the Phoenix accused who are still at the Westville prison, said he was frustrated when two alleged witnesses, who are known to the family, came to their gate and apologised for being a part of the case and putting their family members in jail for no reason. “Whenever we go to the court, there is no evidence to state that my two family members had any implications on what took place that day, yet they have been kept in prison for over several months now. What infuriated me is that two people on two separate occasions came up to my gate and apologised for being a part of the investigation. There is not much I can do but this goes to show that the case is not fair. They said they had no other option but to stand as witnesses because the investigation officers who were handling the case threatened them. They mentioned details that no other person would have known so we believe that this is true,” said Ismail.
Ismail said that the alleged witness was afraid after the death of one of the Phoenix accused and came out to tell the family that he will be withdrawing from the case. “The witness kept saying ‘I will be dropping this’, ‘I was threatened by the investigative officers’ and ‘I apologise for everything I have done to them’. He mentioned the investigators by name and told us information that only a witness would have known. He told us that names were just blurted out on the day without any evidence and that is how the arrests were made. That is not how things were suppose to be done. I understand if people are guilty and this happened but these are innocent people and when they do come out from jail they are going to be emotionally scarred for life,” said Ismail. Ismail said following the day that arrests were made, no police warrants were given and no procedures were followed. “It always bothered me about the way things went down and it was not right, I never understood it. We have been fighting for the Phoenix accused and it’s not just us, there are so many families involved and it’s time that the correct procedures are taken and the innocent are freed. We have been going back and forth to court just to gain more information about the incident and yet every time we make our way to the courts we are given no new information. All they say in court is that they have no evidence, if there is no evidence then why are these people still behind bars,” said Ismail.
He further claimed that the magistrates have been biased through the court proceedings and hopes that people realise this. “On many occasions, when the investigative officers had to answer questions on stand they never give a direct answer. It was simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ questions and yet they steered away from the question entirely. Whilst this goes on never did the magistrates ask the investigative officers to give out direct answers. These court proceedings are rigged, they are just pulling time and it is very sad to say that these people and families are suffering because the state does not know how to correctly go about this case,” said Ismail. Raeesa Ismail, daughter of Yunus Ismail, said that she is praying for the bail of her uncles and hopes that it happens soon. “My uncles are innocent, most of the people who were put in jail on that day are innocent. The state is taking far too long to handle this case and they keep postponing it which is not fair to the accused. When the witness came up to us we were so angry and yet we couldn’t do anything because we need the law to take control of this situation but the law is failing us time and time again. We can’t sleep at night because we don’t know how they are being treated in jail, we don’t know if they are eating proper food or even if they are safe. It is time people see what is really happening and start talking about the day because there are many things that are being left unsaid which can potentially help the accused get out of prison and get back to their normal lives,” said Raeesa.
Raeesa said that she has being doing hamper drives for the families of the accused because they have no breadwinners and are feeling it very hard during these times. “Many of the accused were breadwinners, and these families do not have the proper resources to sustain themselves and their families. I have been putting food hampers together, trying to help these families. It has been very sad knowing that these families are going through such tough times even though their family member had nothing to do with the incident. We want justice to be served like every other family and it is very trusting to know that these cases are being pulled just because the court does not have sufficient evidence to say that these people were ever implicated in the incident which is completely unfair and outright wrong,” said Raeesa.
Fathima Ismail, wife of Yunus Ismail, said that there were days that the community of Phola Park didn’t have bread or milk and yet even after the arrests were made they still provided these necessities to them. “This is not a racial matter, this is about the innocent and the guilty. We have been providing for the community of Phola Park for years and it really upset us when the two alleged witnesses came to us and told us what they did. We have no bad blood towards anyone, we just want the truth to come out and our family members and the accused to be let out of jail. In court it was said that the residents of Phola Park were afraid to take bread and milk from us because they were scared that we had poisoned it which is not true, they in fact took these necessities and there are people who saw them taking it. We are all just good people trying to protect one another but unfortunately it doesn’t seem that way to the others,” said Fathima. In the meanwhile five of the seven accused in the Phoenix massacre case were released on bail on Friday, 5 October. The next court proceedings for the Phoenix accused will take place on Friday, 12 November.
