Siam Lee murder accused released on R40,000 bail
The man accused of kidnapping and murdering Durban North woman Siam Lee has been granted bail in the city’s magistrates court.
The marathon bail application was spread out over three months.
Magistrate Mahomed Motala ruled on Wednesday that the 30-year-old businessman be released on R40,000 bail.
Part of the accused's bail conditions include not interfering with state witnesses and reporting to police thrice weekly.
The case will return to court in August.
In handing down his ruling, Motala said that as a responsible member of society and a parent himself, he shares in the grief of those close to Lee.
Motala said it has pained him to listen to the details of her death being ventilated but that it is important for him to remain impartial.
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Motala continued to say he deemed the fact that the accused supports his mother and younger brother and employs 17 people as exceptional circumstances.
He also emphasised the State's reliance on circumstantial evidence in its case against the accused and that the admissibility of evidence is likely to be challenged at trial stage.
Lee went missing from outside a Durban North home in January.
Her badly burnt body was found on a sugarcane farm in New Hanover in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands two days later.