Mark Lifman murder suspects: Duo make first court appearance, requests solitary confinement

The two men accused of the assassination of Cape Town underworld figure Mark Lifman briefly appeared in the George Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday morning.

Johannes “Johnny” Jacobs, 53, and Gert Johannes Bezuidenhout, 37, were apprehended near Uniondale in a white VW Polo following a swift but intense manhunt on Sunday afternoon.

The arrest took place mere hours after Lifman was gunned down in the parking lot of the Garden Route Mall at around 11am.

The 57-year-old suspected underworld kingpin was reportedly on his way to play golf at Fancourt in George when he was fatally shot with an assault rifle in the drive-by shooting.

Mark Lifman assassinated day before Wainstein trial testimony

The alleged organised hit took place a day before Lifman, who was out on bail, would have been back in the dock at the Western Cape High Court on Monday.

The controversial businessman stands accused with 13 others for the 2017 murder of international steroid smuggler Brian Wainstein, who was a wanted man in the US.

Lifman’s death forced the so-called Steroid King’s murder trial to be postponed for a week.

Request for solitary confinement denied

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The accused asked to be held in solitary confinement, but their request was denied.

The case was postponed to 13 November.

Lifman murder accused ’employed at security company’

Jacobs and Bezuidenhout are reportedly employed at a prominent security company in Cape Town.

“Both of them work for that company and the shooter was a former member of the Saps Task Force who was fired for tampering with evidence,” a highly-placed police source alleged in a DFA report.

“Apparently they believed Lifman was behind the murder of one of their officers in an incident in Paarden Island.”

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