So-called "Black Widow" Thandi Maqubela blew kisses to family members before she was led away after the Western Cape High Court dismissed an application to appeal a court’s decision to deny her bail.
When Maqubela was denied bail in the Western Cape High Court on Friday, pending an appeal of her murder conviction in the Supreme Court of Appeal, her lawyer Thomas Tyler immediately launched an application for leave to appeal the ruling.
But he failed to convince Judge Andre le Grange that a full bench of the High Court or Supreme Court of Appeal would come to a different conclusion.
Tyler argued in his leave to appeal the ruling that another court may find that there were real prospects of success that the murder conviction would be set aside.
“Another court may find that in the event that the murder conviction is set aside, there are real prospects that the sentences for forgery and fraud will be considered on appeal and set aside or reduced.”
Le Grange denied the application and said he was not convinced that another court would come to a different decision.
Prosecutor Bonnie Currie-Gamwo welcomed the decision and said the State would wait for the Supreme Court of Appeal case, which would be finalised early next year.
The same court found Maqubela guilty of killing Patrick Maqubela in June 2009.
The former acting judge was found dead on his bed in his Sea Point flat on June 5, 2009, apparently a day after saying he wanted a divorce.
In March, Thandi Maqubela was sentenced to jail.
After the leave to appeal was denied on Friday, a despondent Maqubela blew kisses to two members of her family in the gallery, before she was led away.
Source: News24
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