Crane's husband not mafia 'don'

2003-11-13 14:36

Johannesburg - The estranged husband of socialite Hazel Crane, killed on Monday in an apparent assassination attempt, was not a mafia "don" but lieutenant to Yossi Harari, said to be the head of Israel's notorious Ramat Amidar gang.

Police believe Harari, the head of Israel's largest crime family, came to South Africa in 1998 and stayed with both Crane's husband Shai Avissar and his then lieutenant Lior Saat. Saat it currently on trial for Avissar's murder.

Superintendent Chris Wilken said on Thursday that Crane was involved in criminal activity. She was convicted in 1993 of dealing in uncut diamonds and fined R50 000 (or two years in jail).

Media reports in 1995 said Crane, a "commodity broker," was involved in a dispute with a Nelspruit company about missing gems, and a R300 000 civil suit in which she and Avissar were alleged to have undertaken a foreign exchange deal that went wrong.

She was not under investigation, however, at the time of her death, Wilken said.

The battered body of her husband Avissar was discovered in 2000 in a shallow grave on a small holding in Erasmia, Pretoria.

He is alleged to have been bludgeoned to death by Saat in October 1999 in Sunninghill, east of Johannesburg. In April 2001, Saat was arrested for his murder.

By that time, two possible witnesses against Saat had already been eliminated.

Julio Bascelli was shot in the head in a deserted garage in Modderfontein, east of Johannesburg, shortly after Avissar's murder while Carlo Binne was shot dead at the Johannesburg club Gecko Lounge in April 2001.

On Monday, Crane became the third potential witness against Saat to be eliminated.

One of the State's only remaining witnesses, the 48-year-old woman who was in the car with Crane at the time of her murder, is being kept under close police guard in hospital. She was shot in the hand.

As for Avissar, his murder made him the fourth alleged member of the Israeli criminal network or mafia to be "taken out". Another prominent member was Motti Raz, alleged by some to have set up the Israeli organised crime network in South Africa in 1996.

"Motti Raz worked for Harari, all of them are working for Harari. Avissar was not a godfather, he was also one of the lieutenants for Harari. Normally there's only one godfather and that godfather is Yossi Harari, who lives in Israel," Wilken said.

He said despite the arrest of Saat, the elimination of Avissar and Raz and the current "on the run" status of another key suspect Amir Moila, an alleged friend of Saat, the Israeli criminal groups were definitely still operational in South Africa.

- SAPA