The state and the police's investigating officer lied about murder accused Christopher Panayiotou being in possession of a passport from Cyprus‚ says defence advocate Terry Price.
He also accused the state and IO of not being honest about the date that Panayiotou applied for his passport.
He said this was done deliberately to deny Panayiotou his right to bail.
This came after multiple adjournments of the bail application before the Port Elizabeth magistrate's court to allow the defence team to go over a new affidavit from investigating officer Kanna Swanepoel.
In the affidavit‚ Swanepoel questions Panayiotou's failure to bring to her notice that he has dual citizenship (in South Africa and Cyprus)‚ has applied for a Cyprus passport and that he has deleted messages on his phone.
Swanepoel believes the deleted messages were notifications of the arrival of his passport‚ that he applied for in February 2015‚ from the Cyprus embassy in Pretoria.
Price said that Swanepoel lied because Panayiotou applied for the passport in February 2013 and had not gone to collect it.
Commenting on the deleted messages‚ Price said that Panayiotou only deleted sexual material from his alleged mistress Chanelle Coutts as he did not want the family to find out about them.
Swanepoel's affidavit also said that Panayiotou should not be granted bail because he is a frequent traveller. Price responded by saying that if traveling abroad is a crime then he himself should get arrested because he also travels internationally.
He said that the investigating officer also mislead the court about Panayiotou being a frequent flyer as he only travels at least once a year.
Prosecutor Marius Stander said that all that Panayiotou had to do was to inform the investigating officer that he has dual citizenship and that he has applied for a Cyprus passport.
He said that it is not written anywhere that Panayiotou applied for the passport in 2013 and if there is then he will admit to lying.
The application will resume at 9am on Wednesday.
State and investigating officer lied to deny Panayiotou his right to bail: Defence
The state and the police's investigating officer lied about murder accused Christopher Panayiotou being in possession of a passport from Cyprus‚ says defence advocate Terry Price.
He also accused the state and IO of not being honest about the date that Panayiotou applied for his passport.
He said this was done deliberately to deny Panayiotou his right to bail.
This came after multiple adjournments of the bail application before the Port Elizabeth magistrate's court to allow the defence team to go over a new affidavit from investigating officer Kanna Swanepoel.
In the affidavit‚ Swanepoel questions Panayiotou's failure to bring to her notice that he has dual citizenship (in South Africa and Cyprus)‚ has applied for a Cyprus passport and that he has deleted messages on his phone.
Swanepoel believes the deleted messages were notifications of the arrival of his passport‚ that he applied for in February 2015‚ from the Cyprus embassy in Pretoria.
Price said that Swanepoel lied because Panayiotou applied for the passport in February 2013 and had not gone to collect it.
Commenting on the deleted messages‚ Price said that Panayiotou only deleted sexual material from his alleged mistress Chanelle Coutts as he did not want the family to find out about them.
Swanepoel's affidavit also said that Panayiotou should not be granted bail because he is a frequent traveller. Price responded by saying that if traveling abroad is a crime then he himself should get arrested because he also travels internationally.
He said that the investigating officer also mislead the court about Panayiotou being a frequent flyer as he only travels at least once a year.
Prosecutor Marius Stander said that all that Panayiotou had to do was to inform the investigating officer that he has dual citizenship and that he has applied for a Cyprus passport.
He said that it is not written anywhere that Panayiotou applied for the passport in 2013 and if there is then he will admit to lying.
The application will resume at 9am on Wednesday.
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