170410. Cape Town. . William Booth, Lawyer for the murder accused Mario César Deus Yela, speaking to the Media outside Wynberg Magistrates court. Mario César Deus Yela is suspected of killing his 3-year-old twins at their Houtbay house. His ex-wife is Julia Engelhor and her lawyer is Juan Smuts. Picture Henk Kruger
A hot shot criminal lawyer who resides in Cape Town took up a case to represent his client against a notorious criminal and this resulted on a hit on his head.
Williams Booth survived Covid-19 and an assassination attempt on his life during 2020 lockdown.
During a sit down with Independent Media Booth revealed that an attempt on his life was made during the hard lockdown in 2020, at his home. He’d noticed two suspicious men at his gate and that’s when they had fired at him.
He said the men fired five shots at him and all four of them hit his vehicle and one hit the side of the garage.
“Fortunately, I was not hit, and the police reacted swiftly and arrested the perpetrators.
“Whether these attempts hit was linked to the cases I did, I can’t say, but what I can say is that I had assisted a victim of crime and testified in the matter and I opened a criminal case on his behalf and restraining orders against one of the accused in the matter.
“He (Accused) was arrested for that matter my client opened against him, and it was kidnapping, intimidation, extortion and obtaining a final restraining order against the accused,” Booth said.
He, however, told the publication that he was not under the witness protection nor his family, but he added that he had to employ extra security.
Booth said the case has had a significant effect on both him and his family.
He continued to say that the entire situation was frustrating as he needed to make special arrangements for him to get to court.
“I believe that I managed to deal with all these issues, I am hopeful that there will be a successful prosecution in this particular matter and we just all need to be vigilant.
“As I say, I have employed security and I am very cautious as to what is going on around me,” Booth explained.
Furthermore, he advised that members of the public needed to exercise caution as they were so many incidents of violence perpetrated against them.
Booth said it was a sad day for members of the legal community to be targeted, adding that sometimes they needed to defend people who had a right to be defended as everyone is deemed innocent.
“Victims of crime have a right to employ lawyers to assist them, to make sure that justice is obtained. Lawyers should not be targeted for the work that they do.
“Magistrate’s prosecutors are also affected by this violence and in society we have seen many instances where lawyers, prosecutors, magistrates been targeted and some have been killed”.
Booth said the general public needed to know that lawyers had a specific job to do as professional which they were doing in a very professional manner.
The lawyer said lawyers should never feel threatened because of a case they have taken on.
During the week, while testifying at the Western Cape High, Booth described an attempt on his life in April 2020 as "extremely stressful".
He was testifying against an alleged underworld gang boss, Nafiz Modack, and 14 others.
Modack and his co-accused face 124 charges related to various crimes, including the murder of top cop, Charl Kinnear, and the attempted murder of Booth.
The Satarday Star