Cape Town - A former attorney has outed alleged underworld kingpin Nafiz Modack as the person who funded the defence’s cases of an alleged hitman and members of the Terrible West Siders gang.
A visibly annoyed Gary Newmark took the stand in the Western Cape High Court yesterday after being subpoenaed to testify amid allegations by a self-confessed hitman that he helped to smuggle him out of court.
In his testimony, the witness, referred to as “Mr A”, had told the court that after allegedly executing hits for Modack, he was arrested by police in Woodstock.
He had testified that he opened fire on police and was taken into custody, but on the day he was set to appear in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court, he was simply let go.
He claimed Newmark was speaking on the phone to Ziyaad Poole, Modack’s co-accused, who bragged about what the “Big Boss” could do and for this reason he believed there were underhanded dealings behind his release.
Taking the stand yesterday, Newmark told the court that on the day of Mr A’s appearance, he was told the case was not enrolled and the hitman was released.
“He (Modack) congratulated me and called me the next Pete Mihalik, but now that may not have been such a good thing.”
He said Modack paid him in electronic transfers as well as cash.
State prosecutor advocate Blaine Lazarus produced bank statements obtained from Empire Car Investments, which showed a total of six electronic payments of R53 000 between December 2019 and May 2020.
Modack’s lawyer, advocate Bash Sibda, told Newmark that his client did not deny the electronic payments, but explained it was not for court appearances as Newmark had claimed.
Sibda explained that the initial amount of R6 000 was paid to Newmark in order for him to write a letter of demand for the return of a Rolex watch allegedly confiscated by police.
Sibda further claimed that Newmark was also paid to accompany domestic workers employed by Modack to open criminal charges against police officers during raids at Modack’s home.
Newmark agreed to the scenarios but was adamant that he represented the hitman as instructed by Modack.
However, Sibda also outed Newmark by revealing that despite his testimony that he defended individuals at court he was in fact barred by the Legal Practitioners Council 10 years ago.