Kilian appears in court on Booth attempted murder charge

Zane Kilian appeared in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday on charges relating to the attempted murder of lawyer William Booth.

This new development is linked to the investigation into the murder of Anti-Gang Unit (AGU) detective Lieutenant Colonel Charl Kinnear outside his home in Bishop Lavis on 18 September.

Kilian was brought from Gauteng for the Booth shooting case and has become the sixth accused after five people were arrested earlier.

He is understood to have been drawn into the matter due to investigators’ preliminary analysis of cellphone tracking.

In the Kinnear matter, Kilian, a private investigator, also faces charges of alleged violation of telecommunication laws relating to a so-called “ping list” containing thousands of numbers belonging to people whose locations were tracked.

Kilian walked up the steps of the holding cells into the dock of the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday with a forward guard of rifle-bearing AGU members wearing bulletproof vests, and was followed by more heavily armed officers who positioned themselves around the court.

Booth was in the garage of his home in Cape Town on 9 April when shots were fired at him.

He was not physically injured, but was shaken.

The five people arrested earlier were charged when police pulled CCTV footage after the shooting at Booth’s home and circulated descriptions of the shooters to the public.

Riyaad Gasant, Kim Smith, Kauther Brown, Igsaan Williams and Ibrahim Deare have already appeared in court. They were not in court with Kilian on Tuesday.

Kilian’s case relating to the Booth shooting was postponed to 10 November and he will be moved from the police holding cells in Bellville to the Goodwood Prison.

The charge sheet includes allegations of a Woodstock gang which operates just outside Cape Town’s CBD.

His bail applications in the Booth and Kinnear matters could be joined.

Outside court, National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) spokesperson Eric Ntabazalila said the State intended to oppose bail.

The charges the six in the Booth matter face individually or collectively include attempted murder, conspiracy to commit murder and the unlawful interception of communications, as well as the illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition.

In the Kinnear matter on Monday, the Bishop Lavis court heard Kilian was purportedly registered as a private investigator and was registered with the Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority.

He faces an additional charge of fraud in that case relating to one of the documents submitted by his defence team over his security industry credentials.

He was due to apply for bail in court in Bellville on Monday but the case took a new turn with the Booth shooting allegations.

He left the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday in a blaze of sirens with a large police escort.

News24

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