Two “compromising” photographs of acting judge Patrick Maqubela were handed to the Cape Town High Court.
|||Cape Town - Two “compromising” photographs of acting judge Patrick Maqubela were handed to the Cape Town High Court on Wednesday.
The photographs were handed to the court orderly face-down, and were passed face-down to the judge.
The media was not allowed to see the photographs and the judge ordered that they be sealed and kept in a safe place.
“These photographs are indeed compromising, and no one may have access to them without my permission or permission from another judge in my absence,” said Judge John Murphy.
Maqubela's wife Thandi is charged with his murder. She and co-accused Vela Mabena, her business partner, have pleaded not guilty to the murder charge.
Thandi Maqubela has also pleaded not guilty to additional charges of forgery and fraud.
Prosecutors Bonnie Currie-Gamwo and Pedro van Wyk allege that she forged her husband's signature on his will, and then fraudulently presented the forged will at the Johannesburg office of the Master of the High Court.
Broeksman handed the photographs to Maqubela on the witness stand and asked: “Do you recognise these compromising photographs?”
She said she did and explained that her husband had shown them to her, and said they had been sent to him by a police officer.
She said she regarded the photographs as blackmail.
A police officer had had a “corrupt relationship” with her husband, and he had often demanded money from her husband.
She said there were more photographs in her possession, “even more compromising then these”.
The trial continues on Monday. - Sapa