'Drug lords killed my wife'

2005-08-04 23:14

Pretoria - Rolf Dieter Meier, who is accused of killing his wife, told Pretoria High Court on Thursday that Nigerian drug lords had been responsible for her murder because he owed them money.

Meier, 29, of Waverley, said during a bail appeal application that his drug lords killed his 42-year-old wife, Alisan Jean, because he owed them money for cocaine.

Meier was arrested in April last year.

Police initially thought the couple had gone missing, but later found Meier sleeping in a limousine - used for the couple's limousine business - at their home.

The limo, which was rented out for special occasions, was packed with goods Meier had taken from their home.

He explained in a statement before court that he wanted to sell the goods to a pawn shop the following morning for money to pay his drug dealers.

Meanwhile, police had found his wife's body wrapped in a duvet under a bed in the couple's house.

Sound marital relationship

Meier, with his waist-length hair in a ponytail, claimed on Thursday that a magistrate had refused him bail, although he had "new information" that his drug suppliers were the actual killers.

He said the magistrate refused to look at the facts contained in a statement handed to the court.

Acting Judge Hennie Goosen found that the magistrate did not consider the statement and he referred the matter back to the regional court to reconsider bail.

Meier said in the statement that he had a sound marital relationship with his wife.

On April 6 last year (the day of the killing) he and his wife spent quality time together.

About noon he craved drugs and went into town where he bumped into his supplier.

"He insisted on payment and I told him to back off."

When he went home later that night, he saw three men running out of his house.

"The last one I recognised as Alex Talimo, shouting 'your son is next'.

"Although I was tranquillised, I realised something was wrong... Entering the bedroom I was shocked to see the deceased (his wife) covered with blood.

"I did not want my son to see his mom in such a terrible state."

Meier said that after his son was asleep in the lounge, he took his wife to the spare room and "gently slid her in the lower part of the bed that formed a box.

Meier said he could not phone the police, because he knew he tampered with the body and other evidence and because he was under the influence of cocaine.

"I knew they would arrest me.

An orgy of cocaine smoking

"I went and smoked cocaine and tried to find a solution to my predicament."

Meier said he decided to go and kill his drug lord. But when he got to the man's flat, he instead indulged in an orgy of cocaine smoking.

He said he later went back home where he took the valuables to sell the following day. It was then that he fell asleep in the limo where police found and arrested him.

The trial is set to start in Pretoria High Court on September 13.

- SAPA