Drainpipe pair: No links to us

2007-04-10 19:18

Pretoria - Two Chinese nationals accused of murdering a Chinese businessman and his family applied for their discharge in Pretoria High Court on Tuesday, saying there was no evidence against them.

Counsel for Siyuan Liu, 48, and Jiansen Bai, 54, handed in written argument in the trial, asking for their discharge.

Oral argument in the case was due to be presented on Wednesday.

Both have denied murdering businessman Jia-Bin Li, his wife, Zin, and daughters Louise, 16, and Ruby, four, in November 2004.

Claimed he saw strangling

The family's decomposing bodies were discovered in a storm-water drainpipe near Midrand several days after they disappeared.

A witness, Yan Bo Zhang, earlier told the court he had seen Liu and Bai strangling the adult Li couple in front of Ruby before she was strangled as well. He had also seen them handling Louise's body.

Zhang said Li had argued with Liu and Bai about a court case and R3.7m Li apparently owed them.

Both accused vehemently denied this.

Li's sister, Yanhau Li, testified that Liu had told her he hated her brother after she had accused him of kidnapping the family.

The State handed in DNA evidence indicating that Li's blood was found in Liu's garage and Ruby's hair in his vehicle.

The defence said Zhang was not a credible witness, had contradicted himself and his evidence should be rejected.

No direct link - accused

They said that without Zhang's evidence there was no direct evidence to link either Liu or Bai to the murders.

Liu said the DNA evidence did not link him directly to the murders and suggested that Zhang could have committed the murders at his house without his knowledge.

The defence also questioned why the State had failed to call as a witness a second man arrested with Zhang, or a security guard who made a statement saying he saw Li at a time when, according to Zhang, the already was dead.

- SAPA