Lawyers for convicted former crime intelligence boss Richard Mdluli and his ex-colleague Mthembeni Mthunzi, have put up a spirited fight to secure non-custodial sentences.

Ike Motloung and Sabelo Nobangule, defence lawyers for Mdluli and Mthunzi respectively, in their trial at the South Gauteng High Court, Johannesburg, came out guns blazing during their closing arguments on Thursday in an attempt to convince the court that their clients were candidates for sentences that would not see them jailed.

The retired policemen, now in their early sixties, were initially charged with a crime committed 22 years ago. Judge Ratha Mokgoatlheng found them guilty, last July, of two counts of kidnapping, two of common assault and two of assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm.

The charges against the two related to the late Oupa Ramogibe and Alice Manana.

The State proved its case - that Ramogibe was kidnapped and assaulted in 1988 for eloping with, and secretly entering into civil union with, Mdluli’s customary law wife, the late Tshidi Buthelezi.