Port Elizabeth - The ongoing murder trial involving Christopher Panayiotou, the man accused of orchestrating the execution of his schoolteacher wife, was postponed in the Port Elizabeth High Court on Thursday.
Prosecutor Marius Stander said that the State intended to proceed with a new chapter of its case.
The new chapter of evidence is expected to deal with a police undercover sting operation where a recording was taken on April 29 last year between alleged middleman Luthando Siyoni and Panayiotou.
Siyoni previously testified that police “forced” and “threatened” him to call his boss as part of the sting operation. It was either cooperate or face jail time, this according to Siyoni who worked as a bouncer at Panayiotou’s nightclub.
“They said I must make Chris confess [to his wife’s murder] so that there can be something that can cause him to be arrested because I was given the money by him,” Siyoni had previously told the court.
Police told Siyoni what to tell Panayiotou and after numerous phone calls, the two men then eventually met up at a garage.
A recording device was placed in Siyoni’s vehicle and the bouncer then managed to convince Panayiotou to come sit in his car.
The State contends that Siyoni’s meeting with Panayiotou during the police sting operation took place because the bouncer wanted to verify his earlier version of events to police.
The Section 204 witness, who was subsequently declared hostile, has since backtracked on the contents in statements he made to police where he implicated the businessman of arranging a hit on his wife’s life.
According to the State, the businessman had his wife killed because she was a “financial burden”.
The defence want the recording made during the police undercover sting operation ruled inadmissible.
A trial-within-a-trial is expected to take place on Friday where the defence and State are expected to go head-to-head dealing with the admissibility of the recording as evidence.
Thursday’s proceedings marked the 31st day of the ongoing murder trial of the three men – Panayiotou, Sinethembe Nenembe and Zolani Sibeko – are charged with the murder of Jayde Panayiotou during April last year.
The State has yet to close its case.
Two additional police officers were also meant to testify in the case this week but were not ready to do so following their involvement in a car accident.
The State alleges that Nemembe assisted Sizwe Vumazonke to kidnap and murder Jayde at the behest of her husband. Vumazonke, who was the alleged link between Siyoni and other hitmen, has since died.
Jayde was driven to a remote area on the outskirts of Kwanobuhle, where the murder took place. The State contends Vumazonke fired two shots through Jayde’s back and a final shot through her head.
Sibeko was the last suspect to be arrested, 15 months after the murder. He was apparently placed – through cellphone mapping – outside Jayde’s complex in the days before her murder.
African News Agency