A private investigator has laid charges of defeating the ends of justice and of perjury against key investigators who probed the murder of Stellenbosch student Inge Lotz.
Last week Lotz's boyfriend, Fred van der Vyver, was acquitted on murder charges after a marathon trial.
Private investigator Niel van Heerden was appointed by Lotz's family to investigate her murder soon after she was found dead in her Stellenbosch flat on March 16, 2005.
On Thursday Van Heerden went to the Mossel Bay police station and laid a charge of defeating the ends of justice against two leading members of the investigations team.
'Information was illegally and purposefully kept from the High Court' He accused them of withholding pertinent information from the court. He also laid a charge of perjury against another person whom he alleges lied while giving evidence.
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The identities of the three are known to the Cape Argus, but they may not be identified for legal reasons.
Today Director Novela Potelwa, spokesperson for provincial police commissioner Mzwandile Petros, confirmed that charges had been laid and that they would be investigated.
"We are compelled to investigate all charges and will do so," she said.
Van Heerden told the Cape Argus he had laid the charges because he believed the three had deliberately misled the Cape High Court by withholding crucial evidence in the trial.
Their actions could have led to a life sentence for an innocent man, he said.
In the brutal attack in Lotz's flat, her head was bludgeoned with a blunt instrument and she was stabbed a number of times.
Van der Vyver was found not guilty of her murder on November 29, after Judge Deon van Zyl, sitting with two assessors, found he had a watertight alibi and the State was unable to prove his guilt beyond reasonable doubt.
It took the help of top experts for Van der Vyver's defence to counter the State's case and during his judgment Judge Van Zyl slammed the police forensics work and handling of the case.
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