King David High School becomes target of Thulsie twins
JOBURG – Cartoonist, Zapiro was allegedly one of the targets that the Thulsie twins wanted to kill for drawing the cartoon of messenger Allah.
King David High School in Randburg was among the targets hit by the Thulsie twins, who are accused of terrorism.
This is according to the provisional indictment document that was handed by the State to the court on 25 April as the duo appeared briefly in Johannesburg Magistrates’ Court.
In the document, the State alleged that one of the brothers, Tony-Lee, accessed the website of King David High School, where the majority of schoolchildren are Jewish. The indictment did not state as to why the accused accessed the school website.
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The document also revealed that cartoonist, Jonathan Shapiro (Zapiro), who is also Jewish, was also a target for his alleged cartoon of Messenger of Allah.
The provisional indictment document contains 12 counts against the 23-year-old twins who were arrested in July last year by the Hawks on suspicion that they had been plotting terrorist attacks against a US mission in Johannesburg as well as Jewish cultural sites [https://northeasterntribune.co.za/186043/hawks-swoop-on-alleged-terror-cell/].
The provisional indictment also revealed that the pair were going to execute terrorist activities by using firearms, explosives and possibly poisons to their targets.
According to the document, the purpose of the planned terrorist attacks was to intimidate the governments of the United States of America, United Kingdom, France, the Russian Federation and the South African government as well as the Jewish, Shia Muslim and other foreign communities in South Africa. The indictment also stated that other purposes of the attacks were to cause or spread feelings of terror, fear or panic in the civilian population of South Africa and in particular the sections of the civilian population targeted
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State Prosecutor, Chris MacAdam also told the court that the 12th count, which is related to fraud, was committed outside the jurisdiction of Gauteng. He highlighted that discussions were being finalised to see if the 12th count could be consolidated with the other counts and be trialled in the Gauteng High Court.
The identical twins looked calm as they were in court and both had glasses on and wore black scarves on their heads.
The case was postponed to 15 May and the pair remains in custody. As they went down the dock they waved at their family members in the public gallery, an elderly female blew them a kiss and immediately burst into tears. Other relatives who came to support the twins, vented out their frustrations with postponements by the state.
Edited by Stacey Woensdregt
