Christopher Panayiotou's legal team will be back in court on Friday in a bid to obtain the case docket from the state prosecutor in an apparent bid to then lodge a new bail application.
Panayiotou stands accused of orchestrating the murder of his wife, 29-year-old schoolteacher Jayde, in April this year.
It is alleged that he paid Luthando Siyoli, 31, a bouncer at his nightclub in Algoa Park, to hire a hitman, identified as Sizwezakhe Vumazonke, 30, to murder his wife.
Late last month Sinethemba Nenembe, 28, was also linked to the case and will join Panayiotou and Vumazonke in the dock. Siyoli has since turned state witness
Panayiotou’s first bail application was denied by Magistrate Abigail Beeton in the Port Elizabeth Magistrate’s Court on June 5, and a subsequent appeal to High Court in Grahamstown was also turned down in July.
Panayiotou has been held at the St Albans Correctional Facility since his arrest 184 days ago.
National prosecuting Authority spokesperson Tsepo Ndwalaza has confirmed that prosecutor Advocate Marius Stander and Panayiotou’s legal counsel, Alwyn Griebenow and Advocate Terry Price SC, had held a meeting in chambers with Beeton earlier this week.
Ndwalaza said he had been informed that Panayiotou’s legal team were seeking to lodge a new bail application and wanted access to the docket.
In order to lodge a new bail application Panayiotou would have to present the court with new facts.
To date, the State has refused to release the docket on the basis that the investigation is not complete.
Source: News24
Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package. 
