The case of four Chinese accused of murdering a Pretoria family was postponed to Tuesday by the Pretoria Magistrate’s Court.
The postponement followed a dispute as to whether Shen Lin, Yanbo Zang, Jain-hen Bai and Siyuan Liu were originally arrested for kidnapping only or murder as well, as the charge sheet now states.
While the defence team asked Magistrate Len Muller to throw the case out of court as their clients had already spent four days in detention, the state called for a postponement.
Annalie Coetzee argued for the state that the case be postponed to Tuesday. She asked for typed records of the original bail application on November 23 to be made available. Coetzee said these are needed to establish under what charges the men had been granted bail.
The accused, who were originally arrested on November 11, were released on between R3 000 and R5 000 bail each, but were rearrested last Thursday. The state said the bail hearing only pertained to kidnapping charges and that the men had been rearrested once murder had been added to the charge sheet.
The defence teams argued, however, that according to the charge sheet and the case docket the accused had already been charged with murder and therefore should be out on bail as originally agreed.
Before lunch, defence lawyer Dirk Human said police had unlawfully interrogated his client without Human’s knowledge.
Human told Muller he had become aware of the situation on Sunday when detectives phoned to inform him that his client (Shen Lin) was ready to make a confession regarding his alleged involvement in the murder of the four family members.
The bodies of Chinese businessman Jai-Bin Li, his wife and his daughters aged four and 16 were found wrapped in plastic in a stormwater drain in Samrand Avenue, Centurion, last month.
Human said he had rushed to his client on Sunday, only to find him terrified of police and not wanting to make a confession.
The men were remanded in custody. — Sapa