Ruling due in bail bid by 5 Thabo Bester accused
A group of five people accused of aiding notorious Facebook rapist and convicted murderer Thabo Bester in his escape from Mangaung Correctional Centre are set to return to court on Monday.
The Bloemfontein Magistrate’s Court will deliver judgment on the bail application of the five accused.
The five suspects include four men and one woman.
Magistrate Mohlolo Khabisi adjourned the matter last week and reserved judgment for Monday.
Last week, the legal representative for accused number eight requested the court to grant his client Natassja Jansen bail, as she is the mother of two young girls.
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Lawyer Gary Botha, representing the former G4S employee accused of electronically closing and opening certain doors on the day of Bester’s escape from the Mangaung Correctional Centre, argued that Jansen is the primary caregiver to her two children.
"I ask the court to grant applicant number five bail. She has two children and her personal circumstances are that she has daughters of 16 and 7 years and she's the only primary caregiver. The fathers are contributing financially but the mother is the sole parent that raised these children. If she is not granted bail what would happen to her children?”
Botha also argued that Jansen has not been charged for the murder of Katlego Bereng, whose charred body was found in Bester's cell in May last year.
"The view of the community was also aggrieved by Katlego, but at the end of the day, the law says that there is no evidence that applicant number five caused his death directly.
"It is my submission that applicant number five has not been charged for his murder."
