A police officer tipped off the chop shop owner arrested in the murder case of Professor Louis Heyns, says the NPA.
|||Cape Town - A police officer tipped off the car workshop owner arrested in the murder case of Stellenbosch academic Louis Heyns, which led to him attempting to destroy the doctor’s stolen car, says the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).
Malmesbury businessman Juan Liedeman’s suspected involvement in the matter was touched on in the Western Cape High Court on Thursday during an application to have his bail hearing fast-tracked.
Liedeman was arrested along with brothers Marthinus and Sarel van der Walt in connection with Heyns’ killing.
The brothers each face a charge of murder and robbery with aggravating circumstances, while Liedeman was initially charged with possessing stolen property.
On Thursday it emerged three more suspects, including the police officer, were being questioned.
Heyns was robbed of, among other things, his Peugeot vehicle. His body was discovered last Thursday in Strand.
An affidavit by the deputy director of public prosecutions, Johannes Niehaus, stated Heyns’ vehicle was found at Liedeman’s work premises.
It said when Liedeman was arrested, the investigation was at an early stage and as it progressed evidence had emerged.
Niehaus’s affidavit said this evidence showed that Liedeman had received “help and information” from a police officer.
It said after Liedeman had received the information from the officer, Liedeman had “proceeded to dismantle and destroy parts of the stolen vehicle.
“Some parts were burnt and other parts were discarded and others hid in a tanker on the premises of (Liedeman).”
Niehaus’s affidavit said Liedeman’s actions “amounted to him assisting the perpetrators of the robbery and murder to hide their crimes, thereby making him an accessory after the fact on at least the robbery charge”.
On Thursday police spokesman Frederick van Wyk said three suspects, aged between 22 and 29 years and one of them a police officer, had been taken in for questioning.
On Monday Liedeman and the Van der Walt brothers appeared in Somerset West Magistrate’s Court where the case was postponed for a week.
But William Booth, representing Liedeman, launched the urgent application in the Western Cape High Court about the postponement.
On Thursday Booth argued that his client Liedeman had not been involved in killing Heyns.
He said one of the Van der Walt brothers had previously worked with Liedeman and both had at one stage lived in a shelter next door to Liedeman’s business premises.
Booth said Liedeman was being “dragged along” with the Van der Walt brothers and the high court had the power to grant him bail.
However, Judge Siraj Desai ruled that if he granted Liedeman bail it would be a “great disservice” to the criminal justice system and prosecution.
Liedeman’s bail application was therefore expected to proceed in Somerset West Magistrate’s Court on Monday.
caryn.dolley@inl.co.za
Cape Times