Radovan Krejcir locked up in Kokstad

CONVICTED Czech fugitive Radovan Krejcir, found guilty of attempted murder, kidnapping and dealing in drugs in the South Gauteng High Court in August last year, has been moved to Ebongweni Closed Maximum Security Prison in Kokstad.

This is according a report which appeared on the IOL website.

Also known as Kokstad C-Max, it is believed to be the most secure prison in South Africa and is home to the country’s most hardened criminals and notorious escapees. Krejcir, who has not yet been sentenced, has the dubious distinction of being the first prisoner to be moved there before his sentencing.

The official reason given to The Star newspaper regarding his move was that the Pretoria C-Max was under renovation. However, in October last year, Correctional Services claimed it had foiled a plot by Krejcir to escape from Zonderwater prison.

The Star reported that warders had confiscated a firearm and several rounds of ammunition from his cell during a raid. They had also found a stun gun, pepper-spray gun, screwdriver, a knife, 10 cell phones, SIM cards and memory sticks. Officials had also claimed to have confiscated Krejcir’s, diary which had detailed his escape plan of being smuggled in a vehicle to Swaziland, from where he would be taken Mozambique then to Argentina in a chartered aircraft.

According to the Star, one of Krejcir’s fellow inmates is Ananias Mathe who escaped the “inescapable” Pretoria C-Max after smearing himself with petroleum jelly. Another prisoner there is Sibusisi ‘Tilili’ Mzimela, who received an 89 year prison sentence in 2011. Since then he has escaped from prison nine times.

A national panel convenes to decide which convicts should be sent to the high-risk maximum security prison. As in similar facilities, Kokstad inmates are kept in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day.

Krejcir fled to South Africa in 2007, using a fake passport, after he had evaded the police who raided his Czech villa in 2005. He was arrested at OR Tambo International Airport while travelling with a fake Seychelles passport. After a Czech application for his extradition was unsuccessful, he stayed in South Africa. Closely linked to murdered security boss Cyril Beeka and strip club boss Lolly Jackson, he still faces a number of murder and other charges.

The Star quoted sources as saying that members of the SAPS’s elite task force had escorted Krejcir to KwaZulu-Natal in an armed convoy, monitored overhead by a police helicopter after senior officers had gotten got wind of an imminent bid to spring him from prison over the festive season.

He is due to be sentenced next month.