Magistrate bans photos of lawyers in nightclub extortion trial after Pete Mihalik shooting

No photographs of "legal practitioners" may be taken during the trial of extortion accused Nafiz Modack and three others.

Magistrate Bruce Pedro said on the first day of the trial on Monday, in the Cape Town District Court, that "in light of what happened" -  the brazen assassination of advocate Pete Mihalik in front of his child's school - no images of legal counsel were permitted. 

He then briefly adjourned for the defence advocates to contact their colleague Rooshdien Rudolph who represented Carl Lakay, the former fifth accused in the matter, to hand over Lakay's death certificate. Lakay was shot and killed in an alleged hit in August.

Modack, Colin Booysen, Jacques Cronje and Ashley Fields are accused of running a mafia-style extortion racket in Cape Town, rivalling another extortion racket allegedly controlled by Mark Lifman, Jerome "Donkie" Booysen, and André Naudé.

They were arrested in December 2017 at the peak of a "war" between competing security companies, run by either the Lifman or Modack group.

The companies are alleged to be fronts. Various nightclub owners, interviewed by TimesLIVE in January, said they were coerced to pay money to one or the other faction.

The trial continues.