Justice for Prisoners and Detainees Trust for Human Rights says it’s relieved that six suspects facing a number of charges including murder will finally stand trial. This after the Mthatha High Court postponed their case to October 9 for trial.
The suspects have been languishing in detention since 2014 – until the human rights NGO put pressure on the justice system to come up with a trial date. The suspects are facing 23 charges including murder, armed robbery, conspiracy to murder , money racketeering and possession of unlicensed firearms.
The Chairperson of the human rights NGO, Derick Mdluli says he’s happy that the suspects will face their charges.
“The date that has been pronounced by the judge is in quite a long time, but what we are intending to do in the meantime, we are intending to approach their lawyers of records to bring a bail application and see if we cannot have the bail application heard, so that these guys are released on bail,” Mdluli says.
“If the court grants them bail because of four years sitting in jail, you still have to wait a long time but at least something has been done because the dates have been pronounced by the judge. There is no more postponement.”
