Krejcir's girlfriend set to continue bid for bail

000 25/07/16 Radovan Krejcir's girlfriend, Marissa Christopher, has been arrested alongside a prison warder Marthinus Johannes Herbst for an alleged plot to break the Czech fugitive out of prison. Picture:Nokuthula Mbatha

000 25/07/16 Radovan Krejcir's girlfriend, Marissa Christopher, has been arrested alongside a prison warder Marthinus Johannes Herbst for an alleged plot to break the Czech fugitive out of prison. Picture:Nokuthula Mbatha

Published Jul 27, 2016

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Johannesburg - Marissa Christopher, the mother of Radovan Krejcir’s youngest child, was due to continue her bail application on Wednesday, while her co-accused was granted R5 000 bail on Tuesday.

Christopher, a former Playboy model, and Zonderwater Prison warder Marthinus Johannes Herbst were arrested over the weekend as the fourth and fifth suspects linked to a plot to break the Czech fugitive out of a Cullinan correctional facility.

During bail proceedings for Herbst and Christopher in the Kempton Park Magistrate’s Court on Tuesday, the State implied that further arrests were imminent.

In April, the first two suspects, Sandile Mdumbe and Correctional Services officer Solly Metlae, were arrested for their alleged roles in the violent escape plan. The plot was suspected to be a full-on assault on Zonderwater, with about 10 rifle-wielding thugs meant to storm it in March and free Krejcir, allegedly given inside information by the now arrested warders.

Christopher was arrested while visiting Krejcir in prison on Saturday, and is suspected of being the one to facilitate payments to the Correctional Services officers and Mdumbe, a middleman who would have escorted Krejcir from Cullinan to a safe house in Mamelodi.

Prosecutor Lawrence Gcaba said he would not oppose Herbst’s bail application as the warder had co-operated with investigators.

However, he said the State had yet to prove that Christopher did not have multiple passports, and that she posed a possible flight risk. He asked for the matter to continue on Wednesday as police had yet to verify her other background information.

Her lawyer, Piet du Plessis, argued the State had refused to explain what the information was.

He said that if the undercover police operation to foil the plan had started earlier this year, the police had plenty of time to do their background checks.

Gcaba said that while the operation was several months old, Herbst and Christopher’s alleged involvement in the plan had been confirmed only recently.

He added that such revelations were not a one-off, implying further arrests were on the way.

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