Najwa Petersen, widow of slain musician Taliep Petersen, is to launch a fresh bail application next month based on ”new facts”, the Wynberg Regional Court heard on Thursday.
She and three men whom she allegedly hired to murder her husband are to go on trial in the Cape High Court on a date still to be fixed.
Her first bail application in the Wynberg Regional Court, based on her psychiatric condition and her young daughter’s need for motherly care, was dismissed, as was her subsequent appeal in the Cape High Court.
She has now engaged a new, high-powered, defence team, comprising senior counsel Herbert Raubenheimer, who is to be assisted by junior counsel Reuben Liddell and attorney John Riley.
Riley, a senior member of the Cape Side-bar, has on a number of occasions acted as a high court judge.
Raubenheimer told magistrate Gavin du Plessis that Petersen had terminated attorney Norman Snitcher’s mandate and engaged Riley instead.
Petersen’s former counsel, Craig Webster, who piloted both her first bail application as well as the high court appeal, was not present at Thursday’s proceedings.
The crowd of supporters that had previously jam-packed the courtroom was also not present.
While Petersen’s co-accused, Abdoer Emjedi, Waheed Hassen and Jefferson Snyders, entered the courtroom up a steep flight of steps leading from the holding cells, Petersen came in through a side entrance, seemingly relaxed and sporting sunglasses.
A bail application, once dismissed, may only be relaunched on new facts. Raubenheimer did not indicate at Thursday’s hearing what the new facts would be.
Petersen is being held at the Breede River Prison in Worcester, and at Raubenheimer’s request the magistrate ordered that she be detained in the prison’s hospital section, to ensure her continued psychiatric treatment.
The four were remanded to October 10, when Petersen is to launch her second bail application. — Sapa