Drug ‘rehab’ boss accused of murdering one of his patients goes on the run
|Published
SUSPECT: Zaid Isaacs.
Cape Town - The owner of a unregistered drug rehabilitation facility accused of murdering one of his patients has gone on the run.
The defence lawyer for suspect Zaid Isaacs has withdrawn from the murder trial, which is set to be heard in the Western Cape High Court, after he failed to pitch for his pretrial hearing for the second time.
Isaacs, the owner of Synergy Rehabilitation and Upliftment Centre in Ruyterwacht, is charged with the murder of Mitchells Plain father Igshaan Philander, 35, whose body was found dumped in Philippi a day after his family was told he had run away from the rehab in November 2021.
Police later arrested Isaacs, with Vuyani Kedama, Moegamat Ishmail Jones and Moegamat Rafiek Ishmail and the rehabilitation centre was shut down.
During the bail hearings at Goodwood Magistrate’s Court, Jones and Ishmail’s lawyer revealed they were instructed to dump the body and clean Isaac’s bakkie.
But they escaped after being sent to the shop and later handed themselves over to cops.
According to the indictment, Igshaan was held captive for two days, and the four men assaulted him for hours.
They also allegedly doused him with hand sanitiser and set him alight before using a rope to hang him.
While the bail applications of all the accused were denied, Isaacs later won an appeal at the High Court and was granted R10000 bail.
His lawyer told the judge he had no idea where his client was and withdrew from the case as he had no instruction from Isaacs.
The case was postponed to May 26.