Zane Kilian’s bail application emanating from the murder of Anti-Gang Unit Lieutenant-Colonel Charl Kinnear on 18 September in Bishop Lavis, Cape Town, had been set down for Tuesday, 8 December, in the Bellville Regional Court.

Kilian’s lawyer, Eric Bryer, said: “The matter will not be heard on Tuesday because my client has been in contact with an inmate who tested positive for Covid-19. Kilian was tested on Monday and once the result is known he will be placed under quarantine for at least 10 days. 

“The magistrate in the matter is also going on leave and we are not sure when his bail application will be heard. It could be heard early January next year.”

Kilian faces charges of murder, conspiracy to commit murder and the unlawful interception of communication. The State argues Kilian pinged Kinnear’s phone 2,110 times from April 2020 until the minute Kinnear was murdered at around 3pm on 18 September in front of his house at 10 Gearing Street, Bishop Lavis. The pinging, the State maintains, gave the hitman the exact time and place to kill Kinnear.

As result of the Covid-19 exposure, Kilian’s bail application, along with four others implicated in the attempted murder of criminal lawyer William Booth in April 2020, scheduled to be heard on Monday, 14 December in the Cape Town Magistrates’ Court, will in all likelihood also be postponed.

Kilian is accused of pinging Booth’s phone and the State contends his action assisted his co-accused in carrying out a failed hit on Booth in April at his Higgovale, Cape Town, home. 

Bryer, during Kilian’s last appearance, indicated the bail application in the Booth matter cannot proceed until the bail application in the Kinnear matter has been finalised. If Kilian is denied bail in the Kinnear matter then that ruling will be applicable to the Booth matter.

The Kinnear assassination is at the heart of the investigation against Kilian and gave birth to the Booth case, with the possibility of more charges for other murders, attempted murders, police corruption and extortion to be added to the charge sheets.

The delay gives investigators a window of opportunity to find the missing pieces in the puzzle of the Kinnear murder, identify and apprehend all those who were part of the plot to kill Kinnear, as well as the attempted hit on Booth and the pinging of cellphones of other people.

The facts before the court are that Kinnear’s investigations into a gun-licence racket shocked the entire SAPS to its core when it revealed that corrupt police officers allegedly colluded with alleged underworld figure Nafiz Modack. They were apprehended, charged on gun-related charges and later released on bail.

However, this sensitive part of the investigation will not be ventilated during the bail application. The State will use the bail application to try to prove that it is in the interest of justice that Kilian stays behind bars and that his incarceration will prevent him from interfering with witnesses.

Once the bail application has been finalised the State will devote considerable time to complete the investigation, make further arrests and finalise the indictment. During the ensuing criminal trial, the State will reveal who was part of the plot to kill Kinnear and why the top detective was murdered.

Kilian will be spending Christmas and New Year in a cell. DM/MC