Drainpipe witness flounders

2006-01-27 15:42

Pretoria - A witness to the gruesome murders of a Chinese businessman, his wife and two daughters floundered in the Pretoria High Court when confronted on Friday with seemingly inexplicable calls made from the deceased's cellphone.

Counsel for one of the accused, Dave Smith SC, confronted State witness Yanbo Zhang with the cellphone records of murder victim Jia-Bin Li.

Zhang testified in the trial of Chinese nationals Siyuan Liu and Jiansen Bai, who have denied guilt on charges that they had in November 2004 murdered Li, his wife Xin and daughters Ruby, 4, and Louise, 16.

He earlier told the court how little Ruby had to watch while first her mother and then her father were strangled before she was strangled as well. The two accused left and later returned with Louise's body.

He testified that after the bodies were dumped in a manhole, the SIM cards from two cellphones were removed and the phones thrown out of the car.

On Friday, however, Smith confronted Zhang with Mr Li's cell phone records, which showed that a phone call had been made from his cellphone on the day of the murder and after he was, according to Zhang's version, already dead.

Zhang insisted that one of the accused must have made the call. They were not both in his sight the whole time.

Zhang also had trouble explaining how a call could have been made from Mr Li's cell phone, using his own SIM cards, to retrieve the messages the day after the murders.

His only explanation was that "someone" must have picked up the phone and SIM cards and made the call, but Smith told him the only reasonable explanation was that he was lying.

The trial continues.

- SAPA