Fugitive killer dies in Swaziland
Convicted murderer, Azeem Yunus, who had been on the run from police since May 2010, has died of a heart attack.
|||Pietermaritzburg - Convicted murderer, Azeem Yunus, who had been on the run from police since May 2010, has died.
According to information received from reliable sources within the police and judiciary, Yunus, 45, who was hiding out in Swaziland under an assumed alias, died of a heart attack on Friday morning.
A SAPS member linked closely with the investigation, but who cannot be named because he is not authorised to speak to the media, revealed that according to information gathered by police intelligence, Yunus’s body was brought back to South Africa on Friday and buried according to Islamic rites on Saturday.
Yunus’s wife, Tasneem, confirmed his death.
She said Yunus died on Friday and she attended the burial.
She maintained that she did not know of his whereabouts before his death.
Yunus was on the run for five years after he failed to show up at the Pietermaritzburg High Court to be sentenced for his crimes.
He was out on bail of R10 000 at the time, pending his sentencing.
Yunus, an Estcourt businessman and father of three, was found guilty of killing Vinod Ramsarup, 31, and the attempted murder of Sara Sathar and her 8-year-old daughter in a drive-by shooting on the N3 in May 2007.
The three came under fire as Ramsarup was driving Sathar and her child to the New Prison in Pietermaritz-burg to visit her son, Shuaib, who had been convicted of the murder of Yunus’s sister, Safia Asmal, 20.
Asmal’s father and Shuaib’s father are first cousins.
Sathar was shot 11 times and her daughter was grazed by three bullets. Both survived, but Ramsarup was hit in the head and died at the scene.
Yunus had pleaded not guilty, claiming he had shot at Sathar in self-defence.
Sathar denied she was carrying a gun and said she believed Yunus wanted to kill her to avenge his sister’s death.
Shuaib Sathar was found guilty of the murder of his second cousin. He was 18 at the time.
Asmal’s murder shocked her family and the Estcourt community, and precipitated a family feud.
The young married woman had been savagely murdered, with medical evidence indicating she was stabbed 13 times, her throat slit and her skull fractured.
To date, Shuaib has served 10 years of his sentence at Westville Prison and still maintains his innocence.
Following Yunus’s escape, the Sathar family offered a R20 000 reward for any information that would lead to his arrest.
Police sources told the Daily News on Tuesday that every lead had been followed, but Yunus could not be found.
It was only after his death on Friday that they became aware that he had been hiding in Swaziland.
An investigation into the matter is under way.
The Sathar family could not be reached for comment – their cellphone numbers were changed – and an official police response had not been received by publication deadline.
sherlissa.peters@inl.co.za
Daily News
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