Rameez Patel to head to Supreme Court of Appeal over bail decision
During his last appearance, Rameez Patel was told he may not travel domestically without a permitting court order which he will now appeal.
POLOKWANE – If Rameez Patel’s application for leave to appeal before the Supreme Court of Appeal (SCA) is denied, his counsel may propose to call another witness to prove the need for the applications.
This was announced by Patel’s counsel on Tuesday before retired presiding judge, Joseph Raulinga when progress on the application for leave to appeal two dismissed applications by Patel was assessed before the Limpopo High Court in Polokwane.
Patel recently applied for relaxed bail conditions in order to travel domestically to attend to family and business matters. In the other appeal matter, which was also denied, Patel’s counsel asked that his brother Razeen, who is a key state witness, be called back to testify for the defence.
Read more: No domestic travel without a court order for Rameez Patel
Raulinga declined both and emphasised that the second application would qualify as conflict of interest if granted, as Razeen had been called previously to testify for the state.
Read more: Judge dismisses two more Rameez Patel applications
This is all in relation to Patel’s trial for the murder of his wife in 2015. The murder charge brought against him for the death of his mother, was provisionally withdrawn in 2021 due to a lack of evidence.
Although never linked to these incidents, Patel’s father was shot and killed in a robbery, and his brother survived an attempt on his life in Mankweng.
In 2019, Patel brought an application for leave to have him discharged in his wife’s murder case, but this was dismissed.
Raulinga who was against the call for a second witness should the SCA dismiss the applications, insisted on finding out who the witness would be, sentiments shared by the prosecutor representing the state.
The defence, however, said this would not be divulged as it “was unethical to make a pre-determination about a call that is upto the SCA to make, without it being present”.
Meanwhile, to monitor progress effectively in the SCA application, the judge proposed that the registrar should give a report back frequently, until the matter continues before the high court.
The outcome of the appeal will be discussed on November 9.
