By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The Thulsi twins, Brandon Lee and Tony Lee at the High Court in Johannesburg, 6 January 2022. Picture: Neil McCartney.
The High Court in Johannesburg has heard the terror-accused Thulsie twins have entered into a plea and sentence agreement with the State on Monday.
Brendon-Lee and Tony-Lee Thulsie have been handed eight years and eleven years in prison respectively after Judge Ratha Mokgoatlheng upheld the plea and sentence deal with the State in the terror case against the brothers.
The convictions of the two Johannesburg brothers in the Johannesburg High Court were the first for international terrorism under the 2004 Protection of Constitutional Democracy Against Terrorist and Related Activities Act (Pocdatara) — known in shorthand as the terrorism act. Previous convictions under the act have been against local right-wingers.
Under the plea bargain, both accused pleaded guilty to attempting to travel to Syria twice in 2015 to join Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), to conduct terrorist activities. Both times authorities prevented them leaving, suspecting their true intent. The brothers also pleaded guilty to downloading ISIL literature from the internet, including instructions on how to acquire weapons and make bombs.
The guilty pleas, convictions and sentencing on Monday bring to a close a long and tortured legal process that was characterised by many delays and growing frustration by the court.
“I am not inclined to give any postponement until next year. That is unacceptable. What I am trying to alert or revive is that we are not only dealing with the niceties of the law. We are dealing with the essence of the survival of the rule of law, if these people can be kept in custody for that long. So, for that reason, I was not going to entertain any application for this matter to be postponed to next year. It’s preposterous to make such an order,” said the judge.
The brothers, who have been in police custody and awaiting trial for nearly six years, were linked to Jihadist group, Islamic State.
Of the 12 counts in the indictment, both Brandon-Lee and Tony-Lee pleaded guilty to count one – which pertains to them attempting to leave South Africa to join terror-group IS.
However, only Brandon-Lee pleaded guilty to count 7, which relates to being in possession of terror-related material in the form of a book titled: How to survive in the West – A Mujahid Guide.
While Tony-Lee pleaded guilty to the third alternative of count 4, which relates to him intentionally conspiring to engage in terrorism activity in South Africa.
Brendon-Lee is to serve eight years in total, while his brother Tony-Lee was given eleven years.
As part of the agreement, the time the twins spent in custody since 2016 will count towards time served.