A man who was sentenced to life imprisonment, for murder, tried to evade serving his sentence by disappearing, after his application for leave to appeal his sentence, was dismissed. He was re-arrested by Midrand Detectives on October 25 in Honeydew and detained at the Midrand cells.
Prenashan Govender has since been taken back to Johannesburg Prison to complete his sentence on October 26 following his re-arrest.
After being sentenced to life imprisonment by the Gauteng High Court, Govender applied for a special leave to appeal the conviction. He was duly granted special leave to appeal shortly after his arrest earlier this year and released on bail pending the outcome of his appeal.
However, Govender tried to evade arrest; his appeal, which was submitted on February 3, was dismissed by the High Court on May 3.
Shortly after that, Govender disappeared and could not be found to go back to prison to complete his sentence.
According to the district police spokesperson Captain Jeff Phora, Govender together with Lester Lloyd Latchman, were arrested for murder following a shooting at night club in Barbeque Downs in 2018. They were both sentenced to life imprisonment and an additional three years for the possession of an unlicensed firearm.
Phora said the shooting occurred around 22:00 where two males were fatally wounded following an altercation at the bar.
“Investigation was conducted and two males were arrested. The case went to High Court for trial and both suspects were convicted and found guilty on two counts of murder. They were both sentenced to life imprisonment on each count. The second suspect, Prenashan Govender was granted special leave to appeal and went out on bail pending the appeal results,” said Phora.
After the conviction, a member of the family of deceased Theolan Nair said, “As much as justice was served, we cannot get our boy back. It was a very traumatic ordeal being in court and we are grateful to the investigating officer who gave us confidence from day one in court up until the conviction and that helped us pull through.”
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