Though alleged killer Najwa Petersen was reportedly suicidal, there was no evidence that being in prison would increase the risk, a forensic psychiatrist told the Wynberg Regional Court on Wednesday.
Dr Larissa Panieri-Peter, who runs the maximum security unit at Valkenberg Psychiatric Hospital in Cape Town, was testifying in a bail application by Najwa, accused of masterminding the murder of her husband, entertainer Taliep Petersen, in December last year.
Two psychiatrists called by the defence on Tuesday testified that she was a high suicide risk and ought not to be held at Pollsmoor prison.
Panieri-Peter said that bipolar mood disorder, which Najwa has been diagnosed as having, was affected by stress.
”Containment” and a regular routine could be very helpful for a sufferer and was well recognised as helping prevent relapse.
For a psychiatrist to send a high suicide-risk patient home and to try to manage her in that environment would, in fact, be considered negligence.
Panieri-Peter said she found it odd that someone who had so severe a mood disorder that she allegedly could not be held in a cell, did not suffer a relapse when her husband was murdered in the family home.
”That is incongruous to the alleged severity of the diagnosis,” she said.
People who had ”brittle” and severe bipolar mood disorder relapsed easily and frequently.
The death of a spouse, no matter how conflictual the relationship, was considered one of the most stressful events possible.
The court also heard on Wednesday that Petersen’s defence team turned down an offer by the prosecution of a bed at Valkenberg for an observation period to determine if she was fit to stand trial.
Also applying for bail is one of Najwa’s three co-accused, Abdoer Mjedi.
The other two are not applying for bail.
Stabbed in the neck
On Tuesday, the court heard that Taliep died only after two previous murder bids planned by Najwa went awry.
The claim emerged during the bail application.
The court also heard from a psychiatrist that Najwa suffered from a range of mental illnesses, that she heard imaginary voices telling her to harm herself and that she stabbed Taliep in the neck last year, just hours after being discharged from a spell of psychiatric treatment.
Prosecutor Shireen Riley told the court that the state would allege that Emjedi was approached by a former employee of Dirk Fruit Namibia, a business at one stage co-owned by Najwa and her brother, to ”get people” to kill Petersen.
She said that on December 14 last year, when Taliep returned from a trip to London, Emjedi was supposed to get people to hijack the vehicle in which the Petersens were travelling, kill Taliep and leave Najwa unharmed.
When that did not materialise, Najwa gave instructions he should be killed when he came out the Luxurama theatre the following day.
That also came to nothing, and instead Emjedi arranged for the remaining two accused, Waheed Hassen and Jefferson Snyders, to go to the Petersen house in Athlone on December 16, where Najwa let them in and they killed Taliep in her presence.
Emjedi, who took the witness stand to testify in support of his bail application, said in reaction to Riley’s version of events: ”No comment.”
Najwa, wearing darkened glasses and a brown patterned Louis Vuitton scarf, did not testify in her bail bid.
Instead her advocate, Craig Webster, handed in an affidavit in which she said she was in a precarious state of health, and had been diagnosed with ”chronic severe major depressive disorder with psychotic features”, a severe panic disorder coupled with agoraphobia, or fear of open spaces, an anxiety disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and chronic insomnia. — Sapa