Adv. Barry Roux to petition appeal court directly on behalf of Coligny two

23 May 2019  

The legal team of Pieter Doorewaard and Phillip Schutte of Coligny, led by Adv. Barry Roux, will be petitioning the highest court of appeal directly for leave to appeal against their conviction for murder of a teenager, Matlhomola Maoshoeu, by the high court in Mmabatho. This follows after the refusal of the said court this morning to grant leave to appeal in the matter.

AfriForum has indicated that it would finance the appeal application of the two men, following the admission to four different persons by the only eye witness in the murder case, Bonakele Pakisi, that he had lied in court in his evidence that he had seen how Doorewaard and Schutte murdered a teenager.

According to Kallie Kriel, chief executive or AfriForum, his organisation expected that the judge in the case would not be prepared to grant leave to appeal because he would find it difficult to admit having made a serious blunder in his initial decision to find the two men guilty of murder.

Kriel pointed out that AfriForum would also finance the two men’s legal costs to petition the highest court of appeal in order to ensure that justice be done and to prevent innocent people wrongly being imprisoned. “I am confident that the two men’s conviction for murder will eventually be set aside on the grounds of the available evidence,” Kriel said.

According to Kriel, it is important that people who spread lies to create racial tension and falsely create a cloud of ‘racism’ over innocent people’s heads be called upon to account for their deeds. “The time has come for the destructive deeds of liars and racial inciters to be opposed,” Kriel said.

Issued by Hesti Steenkamp, Media Liaison Officer, AfriForum, 23 May 2019