Salome Isaacs’s affidavit withdrawing rape charges against Judge Siraj Desai will be presented at the judge’s bail hearing on Friday, said Foreign Affairs spokesperson Ronnie Mamoepa. Mamoepa said the signed affidavit stating Isaacs’s intention to unconditionally withdraw the rape charges was in the possession of the Indian authorities.
”The judge’s lawyers will submit the affidavit to the court when he makes Desai’s bail application at 2pm Indian time [11am South African time] today [Friday].”
There had been some confusion as to whether Isaacs would have to return to India to officially withdraw the charge. Peter Coetzee of the South African consul general in Mumbai, India, confirmed they would probably be informed of the procedure for withdrawing charges at Desai’s bail hearing.
Isaacs withdrew her allegation of rape against Desai on Thursday.
Gabriela Palacios of Sihlali Molefe Incorporated — Isaacs’s lawyers — said they had relied on advice from Desai’s legal team in Mumbai regarding Indian legal procedure.
”We have prepared the relevant documents and a signed affidavit and had it authenticated at the Indian consulate in Parktown, which means it was authenticated on Indian soil,” she said.
”Mafika Sihlali has been in contact with the judge’s senior legal team, and we have followed their instructions. At no stage did they mention [Isaacs] would have to fly to India.”
In a statement on Thursday signed by Isaacs and her husband Mark, she said: ”I hereby wish unconditionally to withdraw the allegation of rape against Mr Siraj Desai.
”I have instructed my attorneys, Sihlali Molefe Incorporated, to attend to the legal processes involved in ensuring that this withdrawal is speedily and properly communicated to the Indian authorities.”
Desai was arrested by Indian police on Monday after Isaacs (26) a South African Aids activist, told police the judge raped her in his hotel room when she went to meet him at 3am on Sunday to discuss the next day’s events at the World Social Forum being held in Mumbai.
Desai and Isaacs were both attending the forum. — Sapa
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