Missing laptop The lead investigator, Ludi Schnelle, was removed from the Gemballa case in November 2010 after a laptop that had been seized from the murder scene mysteriously disappeared from his office.<\/p>\n The laptop went missing shortly after the arrest of Thabiso Mpye of Atteridgeville.<\/p>\n Mpye identified his alleged accomplices and gave police details about how Gemballa was kidnapped from the airport and taken to a house in Edenvale before he was killed.<\/p>\n Krejcir\u2019s former business manager, Ivan Savov, on trial in the commercial crime court in Johannesburg in a separate matter, was renting the house. He said he was overseas at the time of the murder.<\/p>\n More on Krejcir: Police torture Three men were charged with kidnapping and murdering Gemballa \u2013 Thabo Mohapi, Kagiso Ledwaba and Garlond Holworthy.<\/p>\n Mpye, allegedly their accomplice, was the state\u2019s main witness in the case \u2013 but for unexplained reasons he turned hostile on the first day he appeared in court in August last year and refused to testify.<\/p>\n He also retracted his 2010 \u00adstatement implicating the accused, claiming that he had been tortured by police into making it.<\/p>\n Mohapi pleaded not guilty. Ledwaba and Holworthy refused to plead and the court entered a not guilty plea on their behalf.<\/p>\n While Krejcir is not one of the accused, his presence has been felt throughout the trial.<\/p>\n ‘More here than meets the eye’ An answer was provided during closing arguments by the state.<\/p>\n Prosecutor Riegel du Toit told the court: \u201cThere is more here than meets the eye. There are more than these three, more than Mpye. We would like to have everybody who was involved [in Gemballa\u2019s murder], but you need evidence. So we have to start somewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n Gemballa\u2019s wife, Christiane Gemballa, reported him missing shortly after he arrived in Johannesburg. She received three phone calls from him in English, which was unusual as they usually spoke to each other in German.<\/p>\n According to Schnelle\u2019s evidence, Gemballa asked his wife to make a transfer of a million euros. She never spoke to her husband again.<\/p>\n ‘People ready to finance’ Gemballa had contacted an associate of Krejcir\u2019s, Jerome Safi, about the possible deal beforehand. Safi, who was one of more than 20 witnesses to testify in the trial, had been in email contact with Gemballa and told him that he had \u201cpeople ready to finance\u201d a local franchise.<\/p>\n The funding, of up to R100-million, was allegedly going to come from Krejcir and strip-club owner Lolly Jackson. Jackson, Krejcir\u2019s friend and business associate, was shot dead in Kempton Park three months after Gemballa\u2019s murder.<\/p>\n Schnelle\u2019s investigations linked the cellphone that was used to phone Gemballa\u2019s wife to pay-as-you-go vouchers bought on behalf of a Krejcir associate, Michael Arsiotis.<\/p>\n Krejcir has repeatedly denied any connection with the German.<\/p>\n Buying influence But his continued presence in South Africa \u2013 he arrived in 2007 on a fake passport from the Seychelles \u2013 can be seen as illustrating the power of money to buy influence.<\/p>\n He\u00a0 quickly established a network of top lawyers and well-connected cops<\/a> to advise him, including the former head of crime intelligence for Gauteng, Joey Mabasa.<\/p>\n It has been alleged that Krejcir has donated money to the ANC and\u00a0 bragged of having powerful political connections<\/a>.<\/p>\n After his arrival he quickly formed links with various connected individuals. Most of them \u2013 including Cyril Beeka, who was murdered in 2011 \u2013\u00a0 are now dead<\/a>.<\/p>\n Krejcir is currently on trial for one of these murders, that of Sam Issa who was gunned down in 2013. Issa was a well-known underworld figure allegedly involved in supplying drugs to Johannesburg nightclubs.<\/p>\n In total Krejcir is on trial for four separate matters ranging from murder and attempted murder to conspiracy to commit murder.<\/p>\n He has denied all the charges.<\/p>\n Maluleke will hand down his judgment in the Gemballa matter in October.<\/p>\n * Got a tip-off for us about this story? Click here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n While the Czech fugitive from justice is not one of the accused in the case, his presence has been felt throughout.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22786,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4282"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4282\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30787,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4282\/revisions\/30787"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"http:\/\/cdn.mg.co.za\/content\/images\/2015\/09\/23\/deshp16gemballa.jpg\")
\nUwe Gemballa came to South Africa to discuss the possibility of opening a super-car franchise with an associate of Czech fugitive Radovan Krejcir, but he was murdered shortly after he arrived. Photos: Tim Chong\/Reuters<\/em><\/p>\n
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\nGemballa\u2019s murder heightened suspicions that organised crime in South Africa is rooted in the\u00a0corruptibility and instability of the police.<\/a><\/p>\n
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\nSchnelle traced Mpye through Gemballa\u2019s cellphone records. Mpye reached a plea and sentence agreement with the state in October 2010 after pleading guilty to his role in Gemballa\u2019s murder. He was sentenced to 20 years in jail in 2010.<\/p>\n
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\nDuring Schnelle\u2019s testimony, Judge George Maluleke was said to have asked the prosecution why more \u00adpeople were not in the dock.<\/p>\n
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\nA South African franchise would have breathed new life into his failing company, Gemballa Sports Cars, which did tune-ups and luxury conversions on Porches and Ferraris.<\/p>\n
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\nThe tide seems be turning against the once-brazen Czech fugitive \u2013 he was convicted last month, along with five others, including three police \u00adofficers, of kidnapping, attempted murder and the attempted possession of drugs.<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/amabhungane.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/94x94.jpg\")
<\/a>The M&G<\/em> Centre for Investigative Journalism (amaBhungane) produced this story. All views are ours. See www.amabhungane.co.za <\/a> for our stories, activities and funding sources.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"