The Wynberg Regional Court in Cape Town on Monday recommended that Najwa Petersen, accused of the murder of her famous husband Taliep, be moved from the Breederivier Prison at Worcester to one nearer her home.
Western Cape Regional Court president Robert Henney, who presided in her second bail application, which was dismissed, also recommended that the prison authorities relax their rules to allow Petersen’s minor daughter, Zaynup, physical contact with her mother during visits.
Henney made the recommendations — and requested prosecutor Shireen Riley to ensure that they are brought to the attention of the prison authorities — after dismissing Petersen’s second bail application, launched on ”new facts”.
Henney added that there was no reason for the prison authorities to disallow physical contact between a mother and child.
He also requested the social welfare authorities to investigate the circumstances of the young girl, and to report back to him by the end of January.
Family and friends packed into the courtroom for the judgement, hoping to see her released from custody.
There was a stunned silence when they realised this was not to be, and a woman who burst loudly into tears had to be helped from the courtroom.
Henney dismissed the second application on the grounds that Petersen had misled the court in the first application into believing that she was in a precarious psychiatric state that caused her suicidal tendencies.
Petersen had hoped this would bring about her release from custody in the first application, but the misleading testimony in fact boomeranged when Henney ruled in the first application that she was safer in custody.
The misleading evidence was only brought to the court’s attention during the second application, when one of the ”new facts” advanced was that she was in fact not in such a psychiatric state, and that she was fit and able to look after herself and her young daughter at home.
Henney said the misleading evidence in the first application in itself was sufficient grounds to dismiss her second application, as her bona fides had been seriously brought into question.
He said the bona fides of an accused person in custody were of the utmost importance in bail proceedings.
Henney added: ”As her daughter’s primary care-giver, Petersen has made it difficult for herself, and also difficult for the court, to accept her bona fides because she has manipulated the facts.” — Sapa