Cape Town – Jacquen “Boeta” Appollis, a central figure in the Joshlin Smith case, told the Western Cape High Court on Friday that police allegedly subjected him to torture and intimidation, pressuring him into giving a false statement.
As the boyfriend of Joshlin’s mother and the last person known to have seen the six-year-old before she disappeared, Appollis claimed officers beat him, covered his head with a black bag to suffocate him, and forced him to accuse another suspect, Maka Lima, during an interrogation at the Sea Border offices in Saldanha.
He described being restrained, wrapped in a flag, and assaulted by multiple officers.
“The Xhosa man was standing in front of me as my head was hanging. He had a black bag in his hands. He asked me, ‘Do you know Jesus?’, I told him, ‘Yes’, and then he put a black bag over my head. As the black bag was over my head, he told me I must nod or shake my head if I wanted to speak.
Watch the proceedings below (Courtesy of SABC News)
“I couldn’t breathe, so I shook my head and the bag was taken off and I told them I don’t know where Joshlin is. As I told them I don’t know where Joshlin is, I was hit with battens on my knees, feet and hands. I was also smacked on my face. The Coloured man with a beard hit hard on my face, but I don’t know with what. I became dizzy,” he said.
He continued: “They placed the bag again over my head. They asked me, ‘Where is Joshlin? What have you done with Joshlin?’ I told them once again that I didn’t know where Joshlin was. I can’t say when these things happened, but they continued until dark.”
His testimony is part of a trial-within-a-trial to determine whether confessions by him and co-accused Steveno van Rhyn were given voluntarily.
Judge Nathan Erasmus is overseeing the proceedings, while the state has yet to respond to these allegations.
Defense attorney Fanie Harmse argues that any confession obtained under duress should be inadmissible.
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Compiled by Betha Madhomu
