Khanyisile Nkosi
Khanyisile Nkosi
Riaz Kadwa, charged with murdering his parents, yesterday admitted in court that he had incriminated his father after police dismissed his first statement that intruders killed them.
Riaz, 24, of Mayfair, Johannesburg, is on trial in the Johannesburg high court for allegedly shooting dead his parents at their home in 2005.
His sister, Nabila, 19, and wife, Nabeela, 22, were charged as accessories and with defeating the ends of justice. Nabeela was later acquitted.
Shortly after plastic surgeon Anwar Kadwa and his wife Munirah were murdered, Riaz told police that two intruders committed the crimes.
In his first statement Riaz said he had just made love to his wife when he heard gunshots inside his parents' bedroom.
He said he went upstairs and tried to fight off the intruder, who overpowered him.
But when police told him a few days later that they did not believe him and asked him to consider a version that he shot and killed his father after he witnessed him killing his mother, Riaz used this as framework to lie to his family.
"I put it to you that you liked the version because it was better than the truth that you killed both your parents," said state advocate Beverly Edwards.
When she asked him why he implicated his father, Riaz said protecting one of them was better than not doing so at all.
He could not respond when Judge Fritz van Oosten interjected and said he possibly implicated his father to cover up his own deeds.
Riaz told the court that when he left the police station he called his family to a meeting and presented the version suggested by the police as the "truth" about how his parents died.
Riaz said his family fell for this version. "Everybody was warm to me. They knew that something was wrong at home."
Questioned about his third statement in which he said his mother shot his father before killing herself, Riaz said he had to protect his sister and wife, not the deceased.
The trial continues.