Twins Brandon-Lee and Tony-Lee Thulsie are expected to appear in the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court on Friday.
On Thursday, the bail application was postponed to allow the State to prepare affidavits to prove that the twins had been lawfully arrested. The court was due have held a bail application hearing already, but this has been put off after Advocate Annelene Van den Heever, for the twins, argued that the accused pair had been unlawfully arrested.
Van den Heever argued that the affidavits that were initially handed forward could be used for the unlawful arrest application, but this was denied by Magistrate Pieter du Plessis who requested a new set of affidavits.
Van Den Heever submitted a new set of affidavits supporting their argument that the Thulsie twins had been unlawfully arrested, including that no arrest warrants had been presented to them when members of the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks) swooped on terror suspects in Johannesburg earlier this month.
Du Plessis said the state had the obligation to respond to the application and needed to prove that the twins had been lawfully arrested, failing which, he would be compelled to release them.
The Thulsie twins are accused of contravening the Terrorism Act and plotting to blow up a US Mission and Jewish institutions in South Africa on behalf of terror group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
They were arrested, along with two others on July 10, by the Hawks during a operation in Newclare and Azaadville. The four had also reportedly planned to go to Syria to join ISIL.
The Thulsie brothers both face three counts relating to engaging in acts of terrorism. The provisional charge sheet indicates the twins had, during the period between October 2015 and and July 8, 2016, conspired to commit terrorist activities in Johannesburg.
The State alleges the brothers “unlawfully and intentionally conspired to commit the crime of terrorism”, planning to cause explosions at a mission of the United States of America and Jewish institutions located with South Africa. The conspiracy and incitement were linked the “political, religious or ideological motives” of the ISIL, read the charges.
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