Soni changes his legal team
The businessman accused of murdering Pietermaritzburg doctor Bhavish Sewram, has fired his attorney.
|||Durban - The businessman accused of murdering Pietermaritzburg doctor, Bhavish Sewram, has changed his legal representation, in the middle of his trial.
In a surprise move, murder accused Rajive Soni has ended his longstanding association with prominent Pietermaritzburg attorney Naren Sangham, and has hired two top defence advocates to take on his case.
Soni’s new attorney, AK Ayoob, has appointed advocates Christo van Schalkwyk, SC, and Jimmy Howse to represent him when his trial resumes later this year.
Sangham officially withdrew from the case at the Durban High Court on Friday. No reasons were given for the withdrawal.
Dates for the resumption of the trial have yet to be arranged.
Following Sangham’s withdrawal, Judge Jacqueline Henriques and assessor Gerhard Barnard handed down the much anticipated ruling in the “trial-within-a-trial” phase of the case, involving a cellphone video taken of Soni allegedly discussing Sewram’s movements days before his death.
Judge Henriques ruled that after considering all the evidence, she was satisfied that the video was admissible.
A full judgment with reasons for her decision will be given at the end of the trial.
The trial-within-a-trial related to a cellphone video recording allegedly made by one of the State witnesses, Professor Sithebe.
Defence counsel challenged its authenticity and legal admissibility. Sithebe testified that he took the video while with Soni in his car near Sewram’s surgery. He alleges that Soni offered him R100 000 to kill Sewram.
Soni, on bail of R100 000, has pleaded not guilty to allegations that he was responsible for hiring a hit man to kill Sewram as he was leaving his surgery in Dr Chota Motala Road in May 2013.
The state alleges that Soni discovered that his wife had been having an affair with Sewram, and approached a former policeman, Brian Treasurer, to kill the doctor.
Treasurer in turn hired two men, Mfaniseni Nxumalo and Sabelo Dlamini, to carry out the murder.
Dlamini, who pleaded guilty to being the triggerman, was sentenced to life imprisonment.
Treasurer and Nxumalo, whose trial was separated from Soni, pleaded not guilty, but were convicted of the murder and both sentenced to life in prison by the Pietermaritzburg High Court last year.
Daily News