ANT KATZ

The Monday finding by Magistrate Pieter du Plessis ruled that the twins were lawfully arrested and lawfully kept in custody. He remanded the case to last Friday for a bail hearing which they elected not to appear at.

Monday’s finding, however, left them unlikely to be granted bail as they were being held on a Schedule Six offense. So they chose to ask the High Court to challenge Magistrate Du Plessis’ ruling that their arrest had, in fact, been legitimate.

However, they were not well received in the High Court, where Mr Justice Meyer struck the matter off the roll because he said the twins had not followed the correct procedure.

RIGHT: Today, the Thulsie twins are said to look quite different from this Facebook picture as they have grown beards and taken Muslim names. Police have not allowed the media tto photograph them since their arrest

The African News Agency (ANA) reported that advocate Annelene van den Heever for the 23-year-old twins, brought the urgent application because she believed the twins were unlawfully arrested since the police admitted they did not have an arrest warrant.

The twins have not yet applied for bail, they say, because they insist their arrest last month at their Newclare homes in Johannesburg was a breach of their constitutional rights. However, legal pundits say that the real reason is that they are unlikely to be granted bail – and hence their vigorous attempts to have their arrest deemed unlawful.

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The police’s elite Hawks unit had a search warrant when they raided the homes of the twins, and they said because they found incriminating evidence, among which is believed to be a list of intended targets, they decided to arrest both men.

Their advocate then brought an urgent application to the High Court to seek relief for her incarcerated clients, whose rights she said were being breached.

However, on Friday Mr Justice Meyer struck the matter off the roll because he said the twins had not followed procedure.

 “If the arrest was unlawful you could’ve approached the High Court immediately on an urgent application, instead it went to the regional court. And there’s a procedure to follow,” he told them.

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‘Ill thought through’

Van Den Heever had argued it was the constitutional right of an accused person to approach the relevant court, but Justice Meyer said it required two judges to review such a matter – something that was not possible, given that the state was only served with papers late on Thursday.

He said he did not have jurisdiction to review the ruling on his own. State prosecutor Dawie Joubert pointed out that the accused were arrested on July 9, and appeared in court on July 11. Their matter was then postponed a number of times.

Prosecutor Joubert told the judge: “The manner in which the application was launched and brought to court was frivolous and ill thought through. This matter should be struck off the roll with (a) special cost order.”Mr Justice Meyer concurred and struck the matter off the roll.

The twins were remanded in custody.