Evidence is being prepared by William Nkuna’s defence in his trial for the murder of missing police constable Frances Rasuge, after an application for his acquittal was refused on Friday.
Judge Ronnie Hendricks ruled against the defence’s application, under Section 174 of the 1977 Criminal Procedure Act, to acquit Nkuna on the grounds that the state had no prima facie evidence linking him to Rasuge’s murder.
The defence is to start presenting evidence at the Mmabatho Circuit Court sitting in Ga-Rankuwa on Monday. Rasuge went missing on August 27 last year.
Defence counsel Post Moloto said the lack of a body and the circumstantial nature of the State’s evidence did not amount to a prima facie case against Nkuna.
”It will be in the interests of justice that the accused not be expected to take this matter forward,” Moloto said during the application.
Prosecutor Johannes Smit opposed the application, saying reasonable inferences could be made from the evidence presented.
”Even with the absence of a body, it will be up to the common sense of the court to judge whether reasonable inferences can be made from the circumstantial evidence given.
”There are two such inferences. One, that Frances Rasuge is dead; two, that she was killed by William Nkuna.”
Smit said this could be inferred from Rasuge’s turbulent relationship with Nkuna, blood found in Nkuna’s car that was a 99% match to Rasuge’s parents’ DNA, and evidence that Nkuna withdrew money from Rasuge’s account and used her cellphone after she disappeared, among other things.
Earlier on Friday, a police officer told the court a protection order had been served on Nkuna. Rasuge was the complainant and the order was served on Nkuna on May 18 2004, Inspector Ephraim Ratlhagana said.
Earlier in the week, the court heard Rasuge had laid rape charges against Nkuna, which she later withdrew.
On Thursday, Nkuna was identified by a police officer as the man captured on bank surveillance video tapes withdrawing money from Rasuge’s account four days after she disappeared.
A black T-shirt with white trim worn by the man in the video was the same as the one Nkuna willingly handed over to police during a search of his house, the court heard. — Sapa