Judgement in the bail application of senior Scorpions advocate Portia Kgantsi was reserved in the Randburg Regional Court until next Monday.
For the prosecution, advocate Herman Broodryk on Monday argued that the severity of charges against Kgantsi warranted the state’s opposition to bail.
He said other mitigating factors to her remaining in police custody was that she submitted an expired passport to the investigating officer when she was in possession of a valid passport.
Leading evidence from a senior special investigator with the Scorpions, Pieter van der Merwe, the prosecution told the court of an SMS from Kgantsi demanding R315 000 from two Nigerian men.
The men had been arrested and remanded in police custody. The money was supposed to be in lieu of ”making their dockets disappear”.
Magistrate George Andrews ordered Kgantsi to be remanded in police custody but he said special recommendation would be made to the commissioner at Johannesburg Prison to give Kgantsi a single cell.
This was after Kgantsi said in an affidavit that she was verbally assaulted and ”manhandled” by prisoners.
The case continues. — Sapa