Sibanyoni Case | Prosecutor failed to appear in court due to security concerns: NPA

Added: 2026-05-20

[00:00:00]The National Prosecuting Authorities head Andy Matibi says the Guafend state prosecutor who was a no-show during a case involving the prominent business person Joe Ferrari Sabani has now been suspended pending an internal investigation. The prosecutor was supposed to have led the state in the Sabboni extortion case yesterday, but the matter was struck off the role after a few hours of waiting for the prosecutor to arrive. Now, some reports say the prosecutor had indicated as recently as last week that he would not be able to make yesterday's court appearance. Mutib says that the office of the national director of public prosecutions is looking into the matter.

[00:00:38]>> The director of public prosecution is current in Pumalang is currently in Germany. They on a on a study trip, right? So, that's why we've got a acting DPP. But I got to speak to them while while they were in Germany as well with other colleagues. Um and as they as they talked to me is that no the prosecutor amongst others felt unsafe. Uh so that's the information that reached them.

[00:01:04]Right. Then then I said it's important that we collect and gather you know credible information. We've got an we've got a division here that is called uh office of ethics and accountability. it investigates uh internally on matters of this nature. So they are on instruction to to investigate speedily. I need a report from them that will then inform us. But um if if if if it's really around security will get to we'll get to know when the information is collected our in our internal security here. In fact, last week we had our management committee and the security department was assuring me that we do act proactively on these highprofile cases.

[00:01:53]They've got a list of high-profile cases and they provide security proactively.

[00:01:58]So, uh my expectation is that they would have come in in this case and ensure that the prosecutor gets the protection that's deserving.