Grahamstown - The prosecution hit back strongly at the legal team of Christopher Panayiotou, the man accused of murdering his school teacher wife, after he made a renewed attempt at being released on bail in the high court in Grahamstown on Monday.
Senior state advocate Marius Stander dismissed a list of reasons put forth by Panayiotou’s legal team on why he should be released ahead of the murder trial.
Stander went into detail about the contents of a recording that was made on the day that State witness, Luthando Siyoli, allegedly set a trap to lure Panayiotou into admitting he was involved with his wife Jayde’s murder.
The State tried to discredit Panayiotou and his argument that he was instructed by a police officer to meet with Siyoli.
Stander questioned why, if Panayioutou was indeed aware of Siyoli’s arrest, he would ask him to destroy his phone and sim card and why he searched Siyoli for a wire.
The prosecution also wanted to know what Panayiotou meant on the recording when he said: “I can’t keep handing money over” and “this thing has cost me a lot of money”.
“He is clearly referring to money that was already paid and, not to the R5 000 he gave Siyoli on that night,” Stander said.
“If he was so financially strong, like the defence says, then that is small change. Also, if he went there on the instruction of Eksteen [the police officer] like he claims then why would he give Siyoli R5 000?”
The state pointed out other parts of the recording where Panayiotou said: “You need to get gone for a few months until things calm down”, “I will sort out your family” and “I told you to do it outside of the house and take the bag and the rings”.
In the recording, Panayiotou is further quoted as having said: “Don’t sms me. They are watching the sms’s.”
Stander asked why anyone would want to sort out a killer’s family and what would have cost an innocent man such a lot of money.
ANA