Two men implicated in the murder of Cape Town teenager Franziska Blöchliger in Tokai Forest were granted bail on Friday.
Four men were arrested in connection with the attack on the 16-year-old in the forest on March 7. All four face charges of rape‚ murder and robbery.
Accused number two was visibly relieved when the ruling was made in the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court. Clutching his hands together as if in prayer‚ he voiced his thanks as the court adjourned.
The fourth accused showed no emotion whatsoever.
The court heard that because the state had a weak case against the two men‚ there was no reason not to grant them bail.
Westlake community leader Anthea Thebus said that criminals in the community would rejoice that the accused‚ one of whom admitted to being a drug addict‚ were released on bail.
About 30 women gathered outside the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court before the case was heard‚ wearing pink T-shirts with the slogan: “Enough is Enough. Justice for Franziska“.
The group‚ Women of Westlake‚ came from the suburb where the alleged attackers were apprehended.
One of the suspects implicated in the attack‚ the son of a warder at Pollsmoor Prison‚ previously told the court that he wanted to sell her stolen cellphone to buy drugs.
He was high at the time. “All I was interested in was money for drugs‚” he said in an affidavit presented to court.
The prosecution said during their last court appearance that a post-mortem report showed that suffocation and strangulation was the cause of death. Blöchliger had been raped.
One of the men was granted bail of R2‚000 and the other R1‚000.
Two suspects get bail in the case of murdered Cape Town teen jogger
Two men implicated in the murder of Cape Town teenager Franziska Blöchliger in Tokai Forest were granted bail on Friday.
Four men were arrested in connection with the attack on the 16-year-old in the forest on March 7. All four face charges of rape‚ murder and robbery.
Accused number two was visibly relieved when the ruling was made in the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court. Clutching his hands together as if in prayer‚ he voiced his thanks as the court adjourned.
The fourth accused showed no emotion whatsoever.
The court heard that because the state had a weak case against the two men‚ there was no reason not to grant them bail.
Westlake community leader Anthea Thebus said that criminals in the community would rejoice that the accused‚ one of whom admitted to being a drug addict‚ were released on bail.
About 30 women gathered outside the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court before the case was heard‚ wearing pink T-shirts with the slogan: “Enough is Enough. Justice for Franziska“.
The group‚ Women of Westlake‚ came from the suburb where the alleged attackers were apprehended.
One of the suspects implicated in the attack‚ the son of a warder at Pollsmoor Prison‚ previously told the court that he wanted to sell her stolen cellphone to buy drugs.
He was high at the time. “All I was interested in was money for drugs‚” he said in an affidavit presented to court.
The prosecution said during their last court appearance that a post-mortem report showed that suffocation and strangulation was the cause of death. Blöchliger had been raped.
One of the men was granted bail of R2‚000 and the other R1‚000.
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