The Charl Kinnear murder trial has been placed on hold for the next six months as Judge Robert Henney revealed he will not be available in the coming months.
Alleged underworld kingpin Nafiz Modack and his co-accused were sent back to prison and are set to return for the trial in October.
After being in the dock for more than a year, this is the first instance where proceedings have been postponed for a lengthy period.
Modack and his co-accused face over 100 charges - which range from murder to money laundering in the mammoth underworld case centred on the murder of Kinnear who was gunned down outside his Bishop Lavis home in September 2020.
The trial got off to a rough start this year as Modack’s legal representative called for him to be acquitted of Kinnear’s murder.
Defence teams brought extensive 174 applications in a bid to persuade Henney to discharge the charges.
Advocate Bash Sibda argued Modack should be acquitted of Kinnear’s murder saying there was no proof that the pinging of Kinnear’s phone had led to his murder.
The applications were dismissed by Henney and co-accused Zane Kilian subsequently took the stand in his own defence.
He was followed by Modack who sent tongues wagging as he testified in his own defence denying being behind the murder.
Modack launched a slew of scathing attacks on former top cops Major-General Jeremy Vearey and Major-General Andre Lincoln.
In his defence, Modack claimed he was being unfairly targeted by cops who he claimed were working with his known rivals, the slain Mark Lifman and Jerome "Donkie" Booysen, to curtail his alleged efforts to remove drugs from city night clubs.
In a series of allegations he claimed that cops were being paid by alleged members of the underworld to illegally raid his homes, harass his family and even kill him while he was imprisoned.
While Modack spent several days giving his evidence-in-chief, he has spent the most recent weeks under a gruelling cross-examination by state prosecutor Advocate Greg Wolmarans.
Addressing the court on Thursday, Henney informed the accused that the trial will resume on 6 October.
