Phala Phala trial: Defence tries to poke holes in State’s cellphone analyst’s data

The defence in the Phala Phala burglary trial has tried to poke holes in data provided by the State’s cellphone analyst.

On Monday, Imanuwela David, along with siblings Froliana and Ndilinasho Joseph, appeared at the Modimolle Regional Court in Limpopo for the trial.

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They are accused of breaking and entering into President Cyril Ramaphosa’s farm in February 2020 and stealing US$580,000 in cash.

Data presented to court by the cellphone analyst shows two numbers associated with accused number two, Froliana Joseph.

Lawyers for Froliana have raised issues with how the cellphone numbers were associated to their client.

In one instance, the lawyers said the numbers were pinged at different locations at the same time.

In another, data shows the numbers contacted each other about 84 times in a short period of time.

The defence put it to the analyst that it doesn’t make sense for someone to call themselves 84 times.

“These two numbers, associated with Froliana, I did not say they belong to her - these two numbers had communication with each other. As for who was using the phone at the time, that’s not my part. I [only] had to establish whether there was communication between these two numbers and the records reflect that these two numbers communicated with each other.”

The analyst said the associating of the cellphone numbers to the accused persons was done by the investigating officer.

The trial continues on Tuesday with a new State witness.