The Western Cape High Court was left stunned on Friday when a State advocate announced they were withdrawing all the charges against five alleged skollies accused of killing three people.
After being in custody for nearly four years, the heavily-tattooed group cheered loudly and they threw up 28 prison gang signs as they were informed that they would spend Christmas with their families.
According to the State’s case, Oswin Abrahams, Hughen Wehr, Vernon Visser, Shane Lucas and Austin Jacobs allegedly robbed a supermarket in Kalbaskraal in August 2019.
The State alleges that the group set out to rob the store run by Alam Molla and Uzzal Mohammed and allegedly shot and killed them along with Jeremy Davids who was reportedly buying milk for his child at the time.
The group also allegedly opened fire on shoppers and injured two men and assaulted another as they stole cigarettes worth R18 000 and robbed the store of R35 000 in cash.
They appeared before Judge Robert Henney for a pre-trial hearing on Friday but as the judge tried to ascertain whether the matter was ready for trial, the State advocate dropped a bombshell.
The advocate said: “My Lordship, the State is withdrawing all the charges against all of the accused.
No reasons were given for the withdrawal, as the courtroom was stunned into silence.
Defence teams were caught off guard, but informed Henney that they had no objections to the withdrawal of the charges.
Henney then addressed the group who confirmed they were in custody for four years and had no pending matters.
The judge said: “Please don’t go and make trouble. The case against all of you is being withdrawn.”
This was followed by loud cheers as the group celebrated in the dock and were seen throwing up gang signs and wished other inmates good luck with their cases.