Gen Khan warns police raid data leak could threaten undercover operatives

Maj-Gen Feroz Khan has lodged an urgent application in the Johannesburg high court asking for the electronic devices seized during a raid on his home on Sunday, May 10 to be immediately preserved.

Khan is a high-ranking career cop who serves as the deputy head of Crime Intelligence — specifically heading Counter and Security Intelligence — within the South African Police Service (SAPS). He has frequently been a central and controversial figure in high-stakes scandals involving allegations of top-tier police corruption, political interference and illicit networks.

In the founding affidavit in the new urgent application, Khan describes how at 8.15am police arrived at his Houghton home with approximately nine armed members in “balaclavas and tactical attire” and a J50 warrant for his arrest.

He said they searched his property without consent and did not produce a warrant for a search or for the seizure of items they took, including cellphones, electronic devices, an iPad, voice recording devices, his own registered firearm, magazines and ammunition. He was told they were looking for drugs, but no drugs were found.

The seized items were taken to an undisclosed location and no inventory was provided to Khan or his representatives. Days after the seizure, police produced a Cybercrimes Act warrant after concerns were raised about the unlawfulness of accessing the devices.

Khan is now seeking urgent court intervention to declare the search unlawful, recover the seized items and prevent further access to electronic data. He asks the court to declare the warrantless search and seizure unlawful and unconstitutional, and to set aside the police actions and Cybercrimes Act warrant.

Khan warns that exposing the data could compromise national security and spark assassinations of undercover operatives. His initial bid was removed from the roll after the devices were handed on to the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry.

He argued that the matter extends “far beyond my personal interests and impacts the administration of justice and constitutional guarantees.

“I remain unable to determine who has accessed the devices that were under my undisturbed control and over which I exercised rights.”

I now find myself in the extraordinary position of being unable to determine the present status of the very subject matter that forms the basis of the litigation still alive before the Johannesburg high court ...

He points out that once the information has been copied, interrogated, disseminated or extracted, the damage caused is irreversible.

“I approach this court under urgency for immediate interim relief to preserve the status quo and prevent further access to the devices and associated material pending a determination of the legality of the impugned conduct,” Khan said.

He said it was of no comfort to him that his devices were no longer with the police and were now with the Madlanga commission.

“I now find myself in the extraordinary position of being unable to determine the present status of the very subject matter that forms the basis of the litigation still alive before the Johannesburg high court ... without preservation relief I face the very real possibility that my rights will be encroached upon in that further forensic extraction may occur, further copying may occur, further dissemination may occur, further access may occur, further derivative information may be generated and the chain of custody may become increasingly difficult to reconstruct.”

“The devices contain sensitive operational and intelligence-related information relating to my work in the police and material private in nature, details of confidential informants and operations being planned,” he said. He added that the material had been accumulated over many years and he could suffer “potentially irreversible prejudice if preservation is not granted”.

Khan was arrested alongside Gauteng Hawks head Maj-Gen Ebrahim Kadwa and a civilian. He faces charges of illegal precious metals dealing and defeating the ends of justice. The charges stem from an airport gold bust where the generals allegedly falsely claimed a suspect was working under a police operation. Both generals were released on R20,000 bail.