Taking a swipe at the prosecution and the police, defence attorney Alwyn Griebenow claimed the state misled the court on what evidence it had during alleged wife killer Arnold Terblanche’s first bid for bail.
As proceedings in Terblanche’s third bail application continued on Wednesday, Griebenow argued that some evidence had been made available to the defence only after his client’s first application was dismissed, and this alone should be viewed as new facts.
According to Griebenow, much evidence was collected by the defence after Terblanche was denied bail in January, including statements by a number of individuals such as Terblanche’s brother, Marius, and his son, Ethan.
Griebenow said investigating officer Colonel Kanna Swanepoel had misled the defence as to who the state witnesses were, and while some of them had indeed been approached by Swanepoel, no statements had been taken from them at the time.
Griebenow was addressing the Gqeberha magistrate’s court during Terblanche’s bail application based on new facts.
The businessman is accused of orchestrating the murder of his estranged wife, Vicki, in October.
It was the state’s case during Terblanche’s initial bail application and subsequent failed appeal that Terblanche had the propensity to interfere with witnesses as he had allegedly bought Ethan a car and threatened Marius with his job should Ethan not make a statement to the police detailing Vicki’s alleged “ill social behaviour” and drug addiction during their bitter divorce battle.
Griebenow told the court that when the allegation came about, Marius had approached senior state advocate Marius Stander and Swanepoel to say it was not true, but his efforts had “fallen on deaf ears”.
Terblanche was refused bail after magistrate Kriban Pillay found that he posed a flight risk and might interfere with state witnesses.
Later, in the Gqeberha high court, judge Glenn Goosen came to a similar conclusion when he dismissed the appeal on Pillay’s decision.
According to Griebenow, it was only after the bail denial that Terblanche was able to gather further evidence which would have helped him in his first bail bid, and that in itself proved there were new facts before the court.
This included digital evidence, documentary evidence from his divorce file, and statements from Terblanche’s former wife who claimed she had never been abused or threatened by him.
Griebenow said while the evidence might have been available earlier, it was not at Terblanche’s disposal at the time.
“The prosecution is suppressing evidence [and] facts favouring [Terblanche],” Griebenow said.
Stander has meanwhile opposed Terblanche’s latest application, stating that the facts presented are merely an extension, an elaboration and an attempt to address problems and fill the gaps in the evidence already before court.
Stander is expected to present his closing arguments on Thursday.
Terblanche, Vicki’s boyfriend Reinhardt Leach, and friend Dylan Cullis, have been charged with conspiracy to commit murder, murder and defeating the ends of justice.
Leach and Cullis abandoned their bail applications and remain in custody.
The pair were arrested shortly after Vicki’s body was discovered in a shallow grave on a plot in Greenbushes on October 23.
She had been reported missing by Leach two days earlier.
It is alleged Vicki was killed on or about October 18 at her Mill Park home after she was first drugged with Percocet, a Schedule 6 opioid, and then suffocated with a pillow and possibly even strangled.
A fourth person, Mario de Ridder Jnr, has since turned state witness.
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