Pakistani murderers get life
The scene was emotional at the Western Cape High Court as the killers of four Pakistanis were sentenced to life behind bars.
|||Cape Town - The wife of one of the men sentenced to life behind bars for killing four Pakistani nationals, collapsed outside court on Wednesday.
Judge Burton Fourie sentenced Lehano Jansen to a total of 159 years on 14 counts ranging from hijacking and kidnapping to attempted murder and murder.
He ordered the sentences to run concurrently which means Jansen faces an effective term of life behind bars or 25 years.
He sentenced Yazeed Hendricks to 120 years on 7 counts which included 4 counts of murder. The sentences would also run concurrently.
Moegamat Nasief de Villiers was sentenced to 18 years behind bars — 15 years for robbery with aggravating circumstances, and a further 3 years for the unlawful possession of a firearm.
The court’s public gallery was packed with family members of the accused, as well as a large contingent from the Pakistani community.
The wife of Yazeed Hendricks sobbed and collapsed as she was leaving the courthouse, and had to be physically supported by family members.
Fourie told the court he had considered substantial and compelling reasons to deviate from the minimum sentences prescribed by legislation, but felt in this case it would not be justified.
He said the attack on the four men at the house where they lived and ran a bread distribution business could only be described as a “mini war” in which the motivation was greed.
Jansen and Hendricks had stormed the Rocklands, Mitchell’s Plain home on March 19, 2013. They had demanded the safe, and despite it being given to them they executed all four Pakistani men.
Fourie said he could not understand why they murdered the men when “Baqar had handed over the safe”.
The safe contained just R37 and their four passports.
Ghulam Baqar, Adnan Haider, Shazad Ahmad and Muhamed Shafique were executed during the attack.
The day before, all three accused had hijacked a couple, hitting the man in the face with a gun, and later shooting and wounding the woman when she tried to flee. They used the Mercedes as their getaway car after the armed robbery.
All three men had previous convictions.
Fourie said that Hendricks had been convicted of robbery with aggravating circumstances in 1994 and he had had no convictions for the past 15 years. But, he rejected this as a mitigating factor.
Hendricks married six years ago, and was raising his wife’s child as his own.
As her sobs could be heard from outside the courthouse, a group of Pakistani men gathered on the steps of the High Court.
Abid Hussein, who lost his brother, nephew and two close friends in the attack, said he could not forgive the accused.
With raw emotion etched on his face, he said, “I am living, but not living”.
ANA