A Cape High Court judge on Friday reserved judgement in Najwa Petersen’s appeal against a magistrate’s refusal to grant her bail.
Petersen, who was not in court, is appealing last month’s decision by Wynberg regional magistrate Robert Henney.
She and three alleged hired hit men are charged with the murder of her husband, entertainer Taliep Petersen, in December last year.
Advocate Craig Webster told acting Judge John Whitehead that Henney had misdirected himself in finding that the ”exceptional circumstances” needed for Petersen to get bail did not exist.
He said Petersen had a history of psychiatric problems, and had been diagnosed with multiple chronic severe mental illnesses.
The magistrate had accepted this evidence at the bail hearing, and the state did not dispute it.
”It’s not gainsaid: it’s real, it’s significant,” Webster said.
”This history constitutes an exceptional circumstance.”
He also asked Whitehead to note that hospital services at Pollsmoor’s female prison, where Petersen is being kept, were reportedly chaotic, and that it was visited by a psychiatrist only once a month.
There was no evidence that Petersen’s release would endanger public safety, and if there was substance to claims she was a flight risk, this could be dealt with through appropriate bail conditions.
She had emotional, family and property ties to the Western Cape, and the fact that she had a Namibian bank account containing the ”princely sum” of R47,49 was no consequence.
Advocate Shireen Riley, for the state, told Whitehead Petersen was ”deadly”, and that her Namibia links — her family has a fruit distribution business in that country — did make her a flight risk. — Sapa