Businessman, Frank Buyanga Sadiqi, has petitioned the South African Presidency, demanding his release following his detention in a Johannesburg facility over allegations of kidnapping, fraud and financial crimes in 2022.
However, through his legal team, the Hamilton Foundation, he argued new evidence exposed a systematic abuse of power, fabricated charges and judicial manipulation.
The businessman-cum-philanthropist believes these all point to a politically motivated effort to keep him imprisoned.
He argued he had been subjected to “unlawful detention, procedural irregularities, and a blatant miscarriage of justice.”
“We implore the South African government, the judiciary, the South African Human Rights Commission, and the international community to intervene and rectify this grave injustice,” Hamilton Foundation stated.
The unlawful detention relates to the Criminal Procedure Act, which mandates that an arrested person must be brought before a court within 48 hours.
Sadiqi was arrested and charged on November 29, 2022, and revealed he was only brought to court for his first appearance on December 7, 2022, as indicated in his court records.
The legal representatives also query the docket opened in Orlando, Soweto, which was registered on November 16, 2022 without a supporting statement from the complainant. The complainant’s statement was reportedly only filed nine days later.
It has emerged the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks) registered a second, parallel docket in Sandton in September 2004, against the immigration practitioners who assisted Sadiqi in submitting his ID application.
The accused said despite the absence of a prima facie case, new evidence proving no wrongdoing, and an offer of R12 million for bail, the National Prosecuting Authority had persistently refused to grant Sadiqi bail.
Police and the state have accused of conspiring to escape from prison, hence he has been declared a flight risk. His team has rejected this.
Court documents indicate he is a South African resident and ‘dual nationality holder’ of the United Kingdom and Zimbabwe.
Recently Attorneys of South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa, said they will abide by that country’s Constitutional Court’s decision following an application made by Buyanga who had recently launched another bid for freedom.
A warrant of arrest was issued against him by a Harare magistrate after he took the boy to South Africa without the mother’s consent.
At one point, the warrant was cancelled, only to be reinstated after the prosecution successfully applied for its reinstatement at the High Court early last year.
Buyanga was once granted R150 000 bail by the Randburg Magistrates Court, but he was immediately re-arrested on a charge of breaching South African immigration laws.