Grahamstown - Jayde Panayiotou’s family and a large media contingent were present at the Grahamstown High Court on Monday for the bail appeal hearing of her murder accused husband Christopher Panayiotou.
Panayiotou stands accused of masterminding Jayde’s murder earlier this year.
The 28-year-old Panayiotou is appealing the decision by a Port Elizabeth magistrate to deny him bail.
Panayiotou’s defence team had applied for the matter to be heard in Grahamstown in the hopes of getting away from the media frenzy which has surrounded the case.
Jayde Panayiotou's sister Toni Inggs, and her parents Michelle and Derrick were in the Grahamstown High Court for proceedings.
When the appeal proceedings started on Monday morning, senior State advocate Marius Stander told the court he was of the opinion that the court in Grahamstown did not have the jurisdiction to preside over the matter.
Stander said it was practice that any appeal against a magistrate must be dealt with by the local division, in this case the Port Elizabeth High Court.
However the matter went ahead when Judge Glen Goosen decided that the Grahamstown High Court did in fact have the jurisdiction to preside over the matter.
Upon lodging his appeal late last month, Panayiotou’s legal team launched a scathing attack on PE magistrate Abigail Beaton saying she had erred on a number of fronts when she made the decision to deny their client bail.
On June 5, Panayiotou was denied bail by Beaton who ruled that Panayiotou could be a flight risk and that there was a chance he could interfere with State witnesses.
Panayiotou and his two co-accused, his employee, Luthando Siyoli, and the alleged hitman, Sizwe Prince Vumazonke, are all still in custody.
The three men were arrested shortly after the murder. It is alleged that Panayiotou hired Siyoli to kill Jayde. According to the State’s case, Siyoli in turn allegedly hired Vumazonke to pull the trigger.
Jayde’s body was found near Uitenhage a day after she went missing in April. She had been shot several times.
Siyoli has since turned State witness and is in protective custody while Panayiotou and Vumazonke are being detained at the St Albans Prison in Port Elizabeth.
ANA