Durban - Eight years after a Durban woman vanished, her boyfriend has finally been charged with her murder.
Faieka Esop Ali, who would have been 49 this year, was with her boyfriend Sateesh Isseri in February 2007 when he was going to take her to a clinic, but she was never seen by her family again.
Esop Ali’s family believed that she had been murdered and last year offered a cash reward for information. On Thursday they said they were pleased the case was finally before court and thanked senior police officers for reviving the matter.
The case has had several twists and led to the arrest of a senior Hawks officer, Brigadier Simon Madonsela, accused of soliciting a bribe from Esop Ali’s family, who had been desperate to keep the investigation active. Instead, the investigation stalled.
The family, believing she was killed, have applied to have her legally declared dead.
At the time of her disappearance, Isseri told police he had been driving with Esop Ali in the Parlock area when they had been attacked by “three suspects” who had assaulted him and taken Esop Ali.
When his case was called before the Durban Magistrate’s Court on Thursday, Isseri was not present.
His attorney, Vishal Junkeepersad, told the court that Isseri, 53, had been admitted to the Ethekwini Hospital and Heart Centre on November 10, the day of his arrest.
Junkeepersad handed in a medical certificate by a Dr Sudhir Mohun, a specialist physician at the hospital, which said Isseri had been booked in for “unspecified medical conditions and was unfit” to attend court.
Junkeepersad said his client had been booked into the hospital for a “medical emergency” and was undergoing tests including a biopsy and angiogram. According to sources, the State intends to have Isseri indicted to stand trial for the murder in the high court.
Last year Esop Ali’s family brought a civil application, which is still pending, in the Durban High Court to have her declared dead.
In her affidavit before the court, Esop Ali’s daughter Fehmida said she had last seen her mother on the night of February 9, 2007.
“My brother and I have had no personal or telephonic contact with her since.”
She tried to call Esop Ali at 8.30pm the same night, but the call went to voicemail. Later that night she got an SMS from her mother’s cellphone telling her to stay in the house and “lock all the doors”.
The next day she got an SMS from the same number ordering her to pack her things and wait to be fetched.
She said Esop Ali, who had worked with Isseri, had had a “difficult relationship” with him.
She said they had also been told by a private investigator that her mother’s cellphone had been activated with three other cellphone numbers since her disappearance.
In an affidavit before the court, Isseri vehemently denied the allegations against him and said he had information that Esop Ali was “alive and well” in Cape Town.
He said his relationship had been tarnished by the allegations.
In a statement on Thursday, the police admitted the case had gone cold for several years but had been revived at the insistence of Esop Ali’s family.
Madonsela has appeared in court on two counts of corruption for allegedly trying to solicit a bribe from Esop Ali’s family who had approached him to investigate the case.
Isseri’s case was adjourned to next week for him to appear in court.
The Mercury
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