The Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court on Friday granted bail of R20 000 to Riaz Kadwa, the son of murdered Park Lane Clinic plastic surgeon Mohamed Anwar Kadwa.
”I have not been given concrete evidence that Mr Kadwa will flee the country. If he intended to, he would have done this in the five months that he had his passport with him,” magistrate Shikwambane said.
Opposing bail, the investigating officer, Inspector Lappies Labuschagne, told the court Kadwa (21) would probably intimidate state witnesses to be called when the trial resumes on July 31.
”If the accused had any intention to threaten witnesses or intimidate them, he would have done it in these five months,” Shikwambane said.
Mohamed Kadwa (50) and his wife Muneira (49) were shot dead in the bedroom of their home in Crown North, Mayfair, on October 5 last year.
At the time it was thought two armed men entered the house and shot them, while their son, daughter, and daughter-in-law hid in a cupboard.
However, in an affidavit this week, Riaz claimed his mother shot his father before shooting herself. He reportedly claimed his father was having an affair and wanted to leave his wife.
Riaz, his wife Nabeela Patel-Kadwa (22) and his sister Nabila (18) handed themselves in on Thursday as part of an arrangement between the police and their attorney.
Charged as accessories after the fact to murder, and attempting to defeat the ends of justice, the two women were granted bail of R8 000 each.
On Friday, the court was told that 14 shots were fired in the Kadwa’s home the night of the killings.
”The father was violently shot six or seven times. He was shot from the knees to the torso … His entire body,” Labschagne testified through an interpreter.
”The mother was shot twice in the face and stomach,”
Clothed in black with a white shirt, Riaz Kadwa pulled his beard and bit his finger nails as he looked directly at the magistrate.
Defence counsel Mike Hellens SC argued that although the case had sparked a huge public outcry, Kadwa had to be presumed innocent until proven otherwise.
”It will be pure speculation for the state to assume that my client will interfere with witnesses,” Hellens told the court.
However, state prosecutor Cosmos Mbhele argued that he posed a flight risk because he had friends in Dubai.
Mbhele also argued that Riaz Kadwa’s version of what happened on that night was contradictory.
”First he said that his mother had killed herself. Then he opts to say that his father had killed his mother and that he shot his dad because of that,” Mbhele said. – Sapa