Crime Intelligence deputy head Feroz Khan filed an urgent court application on 21 May for the return of his seized devices.

• Crime Intelligence deputy head Feroz Khan filed an urgent court application on 21 May for the return of his seized devices.
• Khan was arrested on 10 May in connection with the alleged unlawful possession of unwrought gold.
• He argues that once electronic information is copied or disseminated, the resulting harm cannot meaningfully be reversed.

Crime Intelligence deputy head, Major-General Feroz Khan, has warned that the information on his seized electronic devices could lead to assassinations and other deaths if they are not returned to him by the Political Killings Task Team.

Khan filed an urgent application in the Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg on 21 May for the return of his devices, following notification that someone had attempted to access his iCloud account on 12 May.

He argued that the warrantless search and seizure of his devices, after his arrest on 10 May, was unlawful and unconstitutional, and that every moment the police retain his phones and iPad without a court order brings irreversible harm closer.

“The risk posed by unrestricted access to such information extends beyond my own privacy interests. To ignore this could result in death, assassinations and compromising undercover operations, the costs of which run into millions of rand,” he said in his affidavit.

Khan claimed that he handed over his devices under duress from armed officers on the scene.

Khan and Gauteng Hawks head Major General Ebrahim Kadwa, alongside Durban businessman Tariq Downes, appeared in the Kempton Park Magistrate’s Court two weeks ago. They were each granted R20 000 bail.

The trio face charges of unlawfully acquiring and possessing unwrought precious metal without the required licences.

Downes was stopped at OR Tambo International Airport in May 2021, with Khan and Kadwa facing charges of defeating the ends of justice, stemming from allegations that they falsely told police that Downes was operating in an undercover operation.

During that search, police seized three cellphones – two iPhones and a Samsung Galaxy S21 – an iPad, his personal firearm and ammunition.

Khan claimed that the State had since indicated to him that its investigation was substantially complete, except for the processing and downloading of the seized devices.

On the search itself, Khan describes the urgent application as one that involves “information relating to vehicle and illicit drug smuggling, assassinations, political killings, murder and gang violence”.

“In the wrong hands, it unmasks the identities of investigative officers, surveillance officers and undercover operatives in the investigative field. This is a serious breach of national security,” he has said.

Khan is asking the court to declare the search and seizure unlawful and unconstitutional, set it aside, order the return of all seized items, and interdict police from any “access to, downloading, forensic interrogation, extraction, dissemination and/or copying of information contained on seized electronic devices”.

He is also asking for the identification and destruction of any forensic copies already made.

“Once electronic information is copied, extracted or disseminated,” his papers warn, “the resulting prejudice cannot meaningfully be reversed.”

The matter is set to be heard on Thursday after the filing of additional affidavits.