Thulsie twins investigator never saw ISIS posts

Wynand Olivier has admitted that he never saw social media posts indicating Brandon-Lee and Tony-Lee Thulsie intended joining the Islamist group.

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 Johannesburg - The defence in case of the Johannesburg twins accused of planning terrorist attacks has claimed that leading investigator Wynand Olivier was misleading the court.

Advocate Anneline Van den Heever, for Brandon-Lee and Tony-Lee Thulsie, on Monday asked the State to produce documents which support claims against the twins. The matter is being heard in the Johannesburg Magistrate’s court.

The twins, who were arrested last month, are accused of plotting a terror attack in which they allegedly planned to detonate explosions at a US Mission in South Africa and at Jewish institutions in the country.

Earlier, Van den Heever insisted that the siblings had wanted to visit Turkey for an interview in order to emigrate there, and not to join ISIS.

Van den Heever cross-examined Olivier, the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation’s (Hawks) lead detective, asking if social media posts supporting ISIS suggested that a person wanted to join the organisation.

Olivier admitted that he didn’t see posts that Brandon-Lee and Tony-Lee Thulsie intended to join ISIS, but that he remained convinced that they might have been interested to join as they had numerous posts supporting ISIS.

“We don’t believe they wanted to emigrate because family members are the ones who alerted the airline concerning the accused’s plans of going to Syria,” said Olivier.

The matter was postponed to Thursday.

African News Agency