BYLINE: STAFF REPORTERS
Interpol is furious that local police have given indemnity to a fugitive Czech billionaire because he may have information about Lolly Jackson's murder.
Radovan Krejcir, a close friend of the murdered Teazers boss, has apparently agreed to turn State witness in the hunt for Jackson's killer. In return, Krejcir will be allowed to stay in the country, avoiding prosecution both abroad and in South Africa in major criminal investigations that had been building up around Jackson.
But Interpol is demanding answers from the Department of Justice about the indemnity granted to Krejcir and from the Department of Home Affairs about his application for asylum in South Africa.
Interpol spokeswoman Colonel Tummi Golding said Krejcir was wanted in the Czech Republic in connection with a murder and on charges of defrauding the state as well as several other cases.
"We know that he entered South Africa bearing incorrect information - it gave the wrong date and place of his birth," she said, adding that his identity had been circulated on the police's Movement Control System and he had been listed as wanted worldwide.
"He was fighting his extradition and he has applied for political asylum. What happened doesn't make sense. Krejcir, who was one of Jackson's best friends, came to this country illegally on false documents and now he is being allowed to escape from the law.
"We need to know why, because it says it is all right to allow people who enter South Africa illegally to stay without any consequences."
Neither Home Affairs spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa nor Justice Department spokesman Tlali Tlali returned phone calls yesterday.
The deal apparently involves Krejcir becoming a State witness and being granted immunity in any cases involving Jackson and alleged hit man George Smith linking him to money laundering or human trafficking.
Krejcir's lawyer Ian Small-Smith, who was not available for comment this morning, earlier confirmed that police had been in contact with Krejcir.
A team of specialised detectives yesterday spent two hours questioning him.
"My client is a State witness and not a suspect... My client is co-operating with the police and providing them with all the information he has in regard to George Smith, who he met in South Africa and who he has known for several years. While he does not know where he is, he will try to help the police find him."
Small-Smith confirmed that Krejcir had applied for political asylum.
Krejcir was arrested in South Africa in 2007. He is wanted in the Czech Republic to help in a multimillion-euro fraud case and an attempted murder case, but has been fighting an extradition order.
Krejcir is believed to have links to several major international criminal networks apparently involved in money laundering and human trafficking, as well as links to clandestine crime organisations the Teazers boss allegedly ran.
He told police the exact workings of a money-laundering scam involving him and Jackson.
He also apparently lived on the same street in Bedfordview as Jackson and Smith.
Jackson had owned the house at 40 Kloof Road for years and Krejcir lived at 54A, which was owned by Katerina Krejcirova.
Smith, the man suspected of murdering Jackson, is a Cypriot, a failed police informer and was an alleged hit man for Jackson. He lived next to door to Krejcir at 54 Kloof Road. Smith was apparently renting the house in Edleen, Kempton Park, where Jackson was shot dead on Monday night.
Sources close to Jackson have suggested two motives for the killing so far: money and murder.
Sources have said both Jackson and Krejcir fell out with Smith over money deals that went sour.
And yesterday one of Jackson's business rivals, Michael Kalymnios, told The Star that Jackson hired Smith to murder him. Kalymnios said the relationship between Jackson and Smith soured when Smith didn't do the hit.
There was trouble between Jackson and Kalymnios last year when Kalymnios fell in love with a Ukrainian stripper, Yuliyana Moshorovs'ka, at Teazers.
After Moshorovs'ka's contract ended, she returned to Ukraine. But she came back to Joburg to be with Kalymnios - sparking threatening phone calls and alleged spying. The couple went to the police to get a protection order.
"I only learnt now that he had hired a hit man to kill me. I am supposed to be dead, not Lolly. He is a scumbag," Kalymnios said.
Kalymnios said Jackson had made four payments to Smith. "I know he paid him four times. I am not sure how much. He threatened and intimidated me before."
The pawnbroker businessman said he had always known that Jackson wanted him dead. He had caused problems for Jackson by suing him for R5.2 million for threatening him, defaming him and for putting pictures of his girlfriend on the internet.
"That's why he was trying to get rid of me. The wheels turned and he was killed - not me. My mother is watching over me. She is my guardian angel."
Kalymnios met Smith at gambling houses in Joburg. "He was a gambler and a drug addict, always high on cocaine. I won't be surprised if he was high when he killed Lolly."
A waiter at a Bedfordview restaurant said Smith and Jackson used to meet there but on Sunday they had a row and Jackson stormed out. On Monday, after the shooting, Smith went to the same restaurant and demanded two packets of cigarettes. "He refused to pay, saying he only had R100 notes. He said he was in a hurry."
The waiter said he and other staff were scared of Smith.
Earlier head of police crime intelligence Major-General Joey Mabaso said Smith had been a police informer for a while until he was dropped because of his involvement in drugs. He said police hadn't been able to establish Smith's real name, address or "how he got into the country". Smith's real name is understood to be Georgianos Louka.
He served seven years in a Swiss prison for drug trafficking.
Police spokesman Eugene Opperman said: "I got an instruction I should not comment any further until we have possible success in this matter. The guys say they just want some room to do the work properly."
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