Court postpones Advocate Barbie trial

The trial of Cezanne Visser, also known as “Advocate Barbie”, was postponed until February next year in the Pretoria High Court on Tuesday.

Acting Judge Chris Eksteen said the matter would be postponed and the trial would begin on February 16.

“It has been postponed numerous times because of the defence.

I understand that your lawyer [Johann Engelbrecht] has been ill but we should start with the trial,” Eksteen told Visser, who was standing in the dock wearing a black trouser suit.

The trial has been delayed for over a year, first because a trial judge was not available and later because Engelbrecht had been involved in a separate trial in Cape Town, where he was representing Taliep Petersen’s wife, Najwa, on murder charges.

Visser and her former lover, Dirk Prinsloo, face charges including indecent assault, rape and manufacturing child pornography.

Prinsloo disappeared in May 2006 after failing to return from a trip to Russia.

Visser and Prinsloo have previously pleaded not guilty.

The trial will start anew in February after the previous Judge, Essop Patel, died in April last year.—Sapa