The new bail application for murder accused Christopher Panayiotou was on Wednesday yet again postponed in the Port Elizabeth magistrate’s court.
State Prosecutor Marius Stander was unable to attend court proceedings due to an ongoing trial he was attending to at the Port Elizabeth High Court.
Advocate Mujaahid Sandan stood in for Stander and asked for the matter to be rolled over until next week.
This is Panayiotou’s third attempt in a bid for bail and the current application has been postponed several times over the past few weeks.
The Port Elizabeth businessman is alleged to have orchestrated his wife, Jayde’s kidnapping and subsequent murder during April last year.
It is alleged Panayiotou paid Siyoni, a bouncer at his Infinity night club, to hire hitman Sizwezakhe Vumazonke to kidnap and murder Jayde.
The state alleges that Sinethemba Nenembe assisted the alleged hitman Vumazonke to kidnap and kill Jayde, allegedly at the behest of her husband.
Defence Advocate Terry Price slammed Stander for not being available.
“Stander has been deferred to by the courts for far too long. Someone needs to put their foot down. He is not as important as he thinks, he is not the be all and end all of the State. He is not the God of law, Stander is dictating to the court his times. His colleague is more than capable to stand in for him. Bail applications are urgent, I’m just asking that we get on with it,” said Price.
Price added that Stander had “more chance of falling pregnant” than being at court on Monday next week.
During proceedings Price submitted heads of argument to the court and said that he had formulated the new facts in Grade R style so as to make it easier for the State to view.
Stander has yet to argue why he thinks no new facts have been established in the defence’s case for bail.
Sandan said that it was highly unlikely that another colleague would be able to stand in as their department was understaffed and overworked.
It also emerged that the record pertaining to Panayiotou’s new bail application was close on 1,500 pages long.
Magistrate Abigail Beeton said that no one would hold the court to ransom and that there had been delays from both sides. She added that by no means was she biased towards the State.
“The matter at the high court has to take preference. The accused there have been in custody for five years,” she said.
Beeton postponed the bail application until June 6 and said that if Stander was unavailable for argument, someone else would have to stand in for him.
– African News Agency (ANA)
