Taliep Petersen’s wife, Najwa, received electric shock therapy before his murder last year and could relapse into psychosis if she remained in custody, the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court heard on Thursday.
She also made an apparent suicide attempt some years ago, her psychiatrist said.
Petersen, who was arrested on Monday, appeared along with three men in a courtroom packed to capacity with relatives and curious onlookers.
The men, Abdoer Emjedi, Waheed Hassen and Jefferson Snyders, sat throughout the entire proceedings with their faces covered and only their eyes showing as they still have to appear in identity parades.
Investigating officer Captain Joe Dryden told the court that two of the men — he did not say which — on Wednesday signed confessions that directly linked Petersen to the planning of the murder.
It is understood that at least one of the men may turn state witness.
”At this stage there is a very strong case against accused one [Petersen],” Dryden said.
A row of plainclothes police formed a protective cordon between the public gallery and the accused.
According to the prosecution, all four are to be charged with a ”planned and/or premeditated” murder, committed ”by a person, group of persons, [or] syndicate acting in the execution or furtherance of a common purpose or conspiracy”.
They will also be charged with armed robbery.
Taliep Petersen, best known for musicals evoking the spirit of Cape Town’s District Six, was shot dead on December 16 in the living room of his Athlone home after being bound with cable ties.
‘Psychotic or depressive relapse’
His 45-year-old wife, wearing a black headscarf, showed no emotion as her advocate, Craig Webster, opposed a state application for a week’s postponement for a bail hearing.
Her psychiatrist, Dr Chris George, told the court she suffered a bipolar mood disorder, and that she was admitted to Cape Town’s Crescent Clinic in April last year when she was ”severely mentally ill”.
”She was described as psychotic, and needed large amounts of medication,” he said.
During a second stay at the clinic in September, she had eight shock-treatment sessions over three weeks and responded positively.
George said Petersen was currently on anti-psychotic and anti-depressant medication, sleeping tablets and tranquilisers.
He visited her on Wednesday night at the Bellville South police cells, where she is being held, and was concerned that her detention might be having an effect on her mental health.
There were signs that she might be having a ”psychotic or depressive relapse”.
In a written report handed to the court, he said that some years ago she was admitted to Groote Schuur Hospital’s emergency unit following a ”parasuicide” by overdose.
Parasuicide is an apparent attempt at suicide, commonly called a suicidal gesture, in which the aim is not death.
Earlier, however, investigating officer Dryden told the court it was not in the interests of justice that Petersen get bail.
Since December he had received numerous calls from members of the public asking if he had arrested Taliep Petersen’s killers.
The community was enraged, and there was a strong chance people might take revenge on her if she was released, he said.
There were cries of ”Yes!” from the public gallery.
Dryden conceded under questioning from Webster that Petersen had told him she was on medication.
”I find it strange that accused one suddenly becomes ill after the murder,” he said. ”According to people I spoke to, the woman is a good actor.”
His statement was greeted with another round of applause from the public gallery, and magistrate Faiza Mohamed threatened to clear it if there were any more interruptions.
Dryden also said he was told Petersen had an urgent medical appointment on Tuesday, but when he phoned the doctor, it turned out it was for a liposuction treatment.
”That woman [the doctor] has been busy making her beautiful for the past three months,” he said.
Mohamed turned down the state’s application for a postponement, ordering that the bail hearing be set down for the first available regional court date.
After a brief adjournment, prosecutor Shareen Riley reported that a regional court slot was available on June 26, but that if the court roll was too full that day, the hearing would have to be postponed to the following week.
Mohamed postponed the matter to June 26.
She ordered that Petersen remain in custody at the Bellville South police cells, Emjedi at Pollsmoor prison, and Hassen and Snyders at the Bellville police cells.
During the morning’s proceedings police confiscated the cellphone of a man who took a photograph with it in the courtroom.
It was also reported that Petersen’s father, Suleiman Dirk, was carried out of the courtroom after collapsing, and was taken to nearby Victoria Hospital for treatment.
Taliep Petersen’s father, Mogamat Petersen, told reporters after the hearing he did not agree that Petersen was psychotic.
”She was, they said, under psychiatric [care], but for six months she wasn’t sick.” — Sapa