New charges in sextortion case as defence abandons bail bid

Sextortion accused Ifeel Simango abandoned his application for bail in the Protea Glen magistrate’s court on Thursday.

Simango was charged with murder with the element of pre-meditation, extortion and fraud.

He was arrested by the Hawks on July 15 on suspicion of having used a fake online profile to convince an underage boy from Switzerland to send him explicit images of himself. Once he received the images, Simango allegedly extorted more than R200,000 from the boy, who was unable to get even more money that was demanded in return for not publishing the images. It is alleged that the images were published and the boy committed suicide.

Reasons given by defence advocate Maleaka Moshobane for abandoning the bail application were that the state had informed him just one day before the Thursday morning appearance that another three charges were being added.

“At this stage I am not prepared. It’s my instruction to abandon this application,” he said.

Prosecutor Cobus Ehlers confirmed to the court that three more charges had been added to the docket on Wednesday morning. These, he said, were money laundering, possession of pornography and the publishing of child pornography.

Hawks spokesperson Granville Meyer said the case involved 52 underage minors from different countries, two of them from South Africa.

Ehlers told the court that the case was a “two-legged offence” — the first involving what was perpetrated and transpired in South Africa and the second involving the fruits of the actions, which appear to be based in Switzerland.

“Basically, the actions took place in South Africa, with results outside of the country,” he said.

The case was postponed to September 6 for further investigation. Simango was remanded in custody.

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