The State intends to charge the Malmesbury businessman linked to the vehicle of slain Professor Louis Heyns with his murder.
|||Cape Town - The State intends to charge the Malmesbury businessman linked to the vehicle of murdered Stellenbosch University Professor Louis Heyns with his murder.
This emerged during an urgent review application brought in the Western Cape High Court on Thursday by Juan Liedeman’s lawyer William Booth.
When Liedeman first appeared in court on Monday, the prosecution said Marthinus van der Walt, 33, and his brother Sarel, 42, were charged with the murder of 59-year-old Heyns, and that Liedeman, 37, was charged with being an accessory to the robbery after the fact.
Booth said Liedeman had only been arrested because Heyns’s car was found at his chop shop in Malmesbury, and that he was in no way involved in the murder.
On Thursday, Booth asked Judge Siraj Desai to order that Somerset West Magistrate’s Court magistrate Ntsikelelo Magutywa review his decision to grant the State a seven-day remand after his client’s first appearance on Monday. Booth also argued that Liedeman be released on bail.
But Judge Desai dismissed the application saying it was “without merit”.
“I would do the criminal justice system and the prosecution a great disservice to grant bail at this stage,” he said.
Prosecutor Samantha Raphels said the State was opposing Liedeman’s release on bail and that they would add him to the murder charge.
Raphels said the prosecution had evidence that Liedeman knew more about the murder than he claimed.
“(Liedeman) wasn’t only in possession of the stolen vehicle but he was involved in the cover-up of the vehicle and relevant evidence pertaining to the State’s case. Parts of the vehicle were burnt and others were hidden,” she argued.
This would amount to another charge of defeating the ends of justice.
On Thursday morning, police revealed that a further three men - including a police officer - had been arrested and taken in for questioning in connection with the murder.
The three men, aged between 22 and 29, had not yet been charged, police spokesman FC van Wyk said.
The police officer was alleged to have given Liedeman information about the case, after which Liedeman allegedly dismantled, destroyed and hid parts of the vehicle, the State said in an affidavit.
Raphels said that Liedeman was charged with a Schedule Six offence and had to convince the court why he should get bail.
Booth, however, said his client owned a business in Malmesbury, had lived there all his life, was married with children and was not a flight risk.
Heyns’s body was found in a shallow grave near the dunes along the Strand beachfront on May 30. He had last been seen alive a week earlier.
jade.otto@inl.co.za
Cape Argus